Johanna Wright with Michael Fleming, receiving the Women in Leadership 2016 Award from the NJ Chapter of the National Black MBA Association Inc.
South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education member, legendary South Orange Middle School teacher and Columbia High School Hall of Fame Basketball Coach Johanna Wright had a very good week earlier this month.
Wright was honored multiple times for her leadership and humanitarianism.
“I’m so blessed,” Wright said. “These awards mean more and more the older you get.”
Wright was honored with the Essex County Education Association’s Human and Civil Rights Award, and also received the Women in Leadership 2016 Award from the New Jersey Chapter of the National Black MBA Association Inc. Wright was also honored along with her late husband Lonnie, her daughter Jazmine, and the late Swede Masin during the 70th Anniversary of Essex County Basketball in Nutley.
Regarding Bob and Patti Masin, Wright said, “Our families are connected through their late father Swede Masin and my late husband Lonnie. Swede was a surrogate grandfather to Jaz, and Bob and Patti are her uncle and aunt.”
Wright seemed more eager to talk about Swede, Bob, Patti, Jazmine and Lonnie than herself, noting that Essex County Basketball recognized Swede as the best athlete in his era, and that Lonnie and Jazmine were recognized for being on the first team for their respective eras. (Wright herself was recognized as a coach.)
Wright noted that Bob has written a book about his dad (“Swede”), chronicling the life of the man who was the inspiration for the main character of Swede in Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel American Pastoral.
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