Rita Wright

November 14, 1931 - September 22, 2021

In 1931 or 1932 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania a little girl was born who was given the name Rita Ann. This little girl did not know the exact year of birth because she was later dropped off on the doorstep of a church and ended up in an orphanage with no documents including no birth certificate. She grew up in the orphanage and in foster homes not knowing she had older twin sisters and a younger brother until years later. At age 16 she ended up in the home of a wonderful Christian family who loved her and treated her as a daughter. Her parents took her to church where she found Christ as her Savior. Her pastor encouraged her to attend a Christian college to learn more of the Bible. Little did she know she was destined to be a pioneer missionary in the Amazon basin in Brazil. It was there that she met Bob who also was going to Brazil as a missionary and they were married in 1955. They went to Brazil and served there from 1957 to 1977. They worked primarily with tribal people doing church planting, linguistics, translation, medical work and leadership training. They came to Corban University in 1977 on loan from their mission (Association of Baptist for world Evangelism) to serve as missionaries-in-residence. Believing it was God‘s will to remain at the college, Rita became the registrar and Bob taught and developed the missions program. She served at Corban for nearly 40 years until retirement. She traveled extensively in international ministries with Bob wherever there were opportunities including Romania and China. "Rita is survived by Robert, her loving and devoted husband and best friend of over 66 years; and their 4 sons: Jonathan (Suzanne), Joel (Diane), Tim (Karen) and Paul (Crystal); 13 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren." “In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution in Rita Wright's name to Corban University (Salem, OR)"