A resident of Pacific Palisades for 55 years, Ann McCoy Wright died peacefully at home with her family on August 13. She was 81. Ann was born September 16, 1923 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the eldest of four children of John Martin and Anne Brown McCoy. As a child, Ann enjoyed an extended Irish family of McCoys, Browns, Geohegans, McCarthys and Parkers. Following graduation from Marblehead High, she entered Radcliffe College and was one of the first women to attend engineering classes at all-male Harvard. In October 1944, shortly after receiving her physics degree, Ann accepted a position as junior engineer at Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. As one of a very few female engineers, Ann had her choice of many suitors. In October 1945, she married fellow engineer Fred A. Wright. A year later their first son, William, was born. Soon after, the young family followed their dream of living on a farm, moving to Northridge in the San Fernando Valley. Their second son, John, was born in 1948. The valley proved too hot and dusty for the woman from Marblehead, so the Wrights purchased land overlooking the Pacific Ocean above the Bel-Air Bay Club in 1949 and built what was to become their home of 55 years. Their third son, Robert, was born in 1952, and the family settled into their cozy rural neighborhood in the hillside bowl over the ocean. Though Ann’s career as an engineer was put on hold following the birth of her first son, she found an intellectual outlet in her boys’ schooling. For many of their class projects, she became library researcher, editor and typist. It was during this time that the children came to better understand their mother’s heritage. For, though she had lost her strange “Boston” accent in everyday English, it surfaced when she tried to help them with French pronunciation. She sounded just like President Kennedy. As the boys began leaving home for college in the 1960s, Ann returned to college to study computer programming. This led to work at The Rand Corporation. Later, Ann began a long “career” as a volunteer bookkeeper at the Palisades Letter Shop. In the late ’60s, Ann grew increasingly concerned about the accelerating development of the Palisades and began a long-time commitment to the Pacific Palisades Civic League. She worked tirelessly on zoning and CC&R issues in her immediate neighborhood. Ann was also active for years in the Pacific Palisades Historical Society and Library Association. After her husband Fred retired from Douglas, the couple frequently traveled to their cabin in southwestern Washington state. There in Deep River, they developed close ties with their middle son’s in-laws. Ann also traveled frequently to San Diego and Fairbanks, Alaska, for special events in the lives of her children and grandchildren. When Fred was slowed by illness in 2001, Ann cared for him in their home. Their travel became limited to walks in their immediate neighborhood, allowing them to maintain ties with old neighbors and initiate friendships with the new families moving in. With her incredible memory and insatiable thirst for information, Ann was the neighborhood’s data bank for historic and current events. Ann is survived by her husband of 60 years, Fred; sons William (wife Susie), John (wife Kathleen) and Robert “Rusty” (Susan); grandchildren Amy Roach, Morgan Wright, and Maia, Katrina, and Grant Wright; her brother John McCoy and sister Marjorie Doherty; and nieces and nephews from California to Massachusetts. Friends are encouraged to join the family to share memories of Ann at the Wright home, 230 Arno Way, on Sunday, August 21, from noon to 3 p.m. Donations in Ann’s memory may be made to the Pacific Palisades Historical Society, P.O. Box 1299 Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 and the Pacific Palisades Library Association, P.O. Box 1370, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.
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