WRIGHT COMBINATION
Mary Louise and Ben shared a love for skating by TROY SCHWINDT
F
or more than seven decades, Benjamin Wright has served in virtually every capac- ity at Te Skating Club of Boston, U.S. Figure Skating and the International Skat-
ing Union (ISU). His contributions to the sport are immeasurable by anyone’s standards. Yet when it comes time for him to speak
about his remarkable career, Wright gladly removes himself from the spotlight and instead shines it brightly on his late wife Mary Louise Wright. For it was Mary Louise, he says, who was one of the sport’s most respected judges and someone who helped the judging careers of countless others. Mary Louise passed away in 2004 at the age
of 81. She was the senior U.S. Figure Skating judge in service, having been originally appointed in 1939. After her passing, Ben, himself first ap- pointed in 1942, succeeded her as the senior judge and also as senior referee and accountant. “She was the best judge we ever had,” said
Ben at Mary Louise’s 2005 U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame induction ceremony reception. “She never received a sanction from the ISU, ever. She served at two Olympics and 13 Worlds. She was one of the first women to do the North Ameri- can Championships, right after the war. Men did the judging in those days. Women judges did test judging. Mary Louise was one of the first women to judge nationals, as well.” Ben and Mary Louise’s life together was truly
a love story. In 1941, Ben’s mentor, SKATING magazine
editor Teresa Weld Blanchard, sent her young, unpaid editorial assistant to Philadelphia to cover the North American Championships. Ben’s cov- erage included interviewing the Saint Paul Four, which won for the first time over the Canadians since the inauguration of the event in 1923. Mary Louise skated on the winning team. Ben’s boyhood friend, Stephen Tanner, had
tipped off Ben about Mary Louise prior to his heading to Philadelphia. Tanner had skated against Mary Louise’s brother, Robert, in the novice men’s ranks at the 1938 U.S. Championships, at which Mary Louise competed in novice ladies. “So he was recommending Mary Louise to
me before I even met her,” said Ben, who admits it was love at first sight. In 1942, Ben ventured from Boston to Chi-
cago to help cover the U.S. Championships for the magazine. “Tat’s when I had my first date with Mary Louise,” Ben said. “I took her to the post-event
28 APRIL 2012
party. We were pen pals during the war. She sent me letters about what was going on. We didn’t re- ally become a serious couple until 1950, when I was invited by her father to trial judge and judge in the Minnesota area, with Mary Louise’s mother Mayme serving as a chaperone.” Her father, Fred Premer, was the first presi-
dent of the Saint Paul Figure Skating Club, as well as a good skater and well-known local judge. Her brother was also an accomplished skater and judge, earning his gold figure (Eighth) test in 1942 with Mary Louise serving as his coach. Mary Lou- ise, with her father and brother, served as a test judge for many skaters, including Te SC of Bos- ton’s Chuck Foster who came from Fargo, N.D., and later became a president of U.S. Figure Skat- ing.
While Ben was at war, Mary Louise attended the University of Minnesota, where she earned a
“They always represented a standard of excellence when it came to judging and if you passed a test with them you knew you were ready to go on to the next level or that your child was. They were very professional in their bearing but also approachable
for constructive criticism and advice.” — SALLY ZEGHIBE,
longtime The SC of Boston member, on Mary Louise and Ben's judging careers
bachelor’s degree in medical technology, finishing with distinction and first in her class. She worked in the university’s medical school’s research lab for eight years before moving to Boston, where she married Ben on March 13, 1953. Ben graduated from Harvard in 1943 and the Boston University School of Law in 1950. Mary Louise’s early skating successes includ- ed passing her gold figure (eighth) test in 1941, at age 18 (only the 24th skater to do so). She was first appointed a judge in 1939 and became a national judge in 1943, an international judge in 1948, a World judge in 1951, an international dance judge in 1951 and World dance judge in 1961. Olympian and longtime World judge Janet
[Gerhauser] Carpenter grew up in the Saint Paul area and considered Mary Louise a mentor and a
“big sister.” “Te generation right behind her all looked
up to her,” said Carpenter, also a member of the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame. “She was very smart, very bright, and everybody who ever met her realized right away that she was well versed in so many subjects, certainly in skating. She had a fabulous knowledge and was such an excellent judge. She was very keen, very quick, so everyone admired her judging.” Mary Louise’s reputation as one of the coun-
try’s finest judges was never lost on Ben, who was happy to follow in her path when it came to judg- ing events. His decision early in his life to pursue an off-ice role wasn’t a difficult one to make given his self-proclaimed lack of natural talent. “I was never a very good skater,” he said.
“Early in my career, my peers would say, ‘You are never going to make it; here’s a pencil. Go take down numbers,’ so I became an accountant.” Ben became a national judge in 1950, a national ac- countant in 1952, a national referee in 1958, an international judge in 1962, an international referee in 1966, a World judge in 1967, a World referee in 1970, an international dance referee in 1971 and a World dance referee in 1974. Ben credits Mary Louise for showing him the way on the judges’ stand. “She was the anchor of the partnership dur-
ing my years of coming up through the ranks,” he said. “I became a judge in 1942. She was very se- nior to me, especially in dance.” Amazingly, Ben and Mary Louise never en-
gaged in any significant discussion of how they judged a particular competition. “I had such high respect for her I wouldn’t
have dreamed of doing that,” said Ben, who went on to enjoy an unprecedented career as a judge, accountant and referee at the national and inter- national levels, including six Olympic Games, 22 World Championships, 12 European Champion- ships, eight World Junior Championships and 25 U.S. Championships. Mary Louise was so well thought of in the skating community that she was asked to conduct judges’ schools all over the country, including the first ones for the Broadmoor Skating Club in Col- orado Springs, Colo. “Tat is how all the judges from Colorado
became judges,” he said. “She took a train there. She was vice chairman for the Midwest judges committee.”
While members at Te SC of Boston, Mary
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