PULLMAN, WA – Decades after their passing, Washington State University alumnus Dr. Howard Wright (‘52 DVM) and Anne Wright are still providing opportunities to veterinary students that love animals just as much as they did.
Fourth-year veterinary student Montana Milton is the latest recipient of the Howard L. and E. Anne Wright Scholarship. The $49,000 scholarship, created by the two late animal lovers who were committed to helping people, is meant to ease the financial strain of a veterinary student in the top half of their class academically who plans to enter a career in small animal medicine.
“Being selected for such a substantial scholarship in their name is an honor that I don’t take lightly, and it means the world to me that I have been deemed deserving of it. I am so inspired by the opportunity to live up to Howard and Anne’s memory, and I hope to do so throughout my career by taking excellent care of my patients, uplifting people around me, and paying forward the blessings I have received,” Milton said.
For Milton, the scholarship means she doesn’t have to fret about the cost of attending veterinary school or rushing into a big contract.
Being selected for such a substantial scholarship in their name is an honor that I don’t take lightly, and it means the world to me that I have been deemed deserving of it.
Montana Milton, fourth-year veterinary student
Washington State University
The scholarship will not only fund her entire final and clinical year of WSU’s veterinary program, it will also allow her to consider smaller communities with smaller contracts since her school debt is much lower than she expected.
“Now I’m free to make that decision and end up where I want to live, and not just move to a big city,” she said.
First awarded in 2009, the Wright Scholarship has now provided nearly $500,000 in financial support to 16 WSU veterinary students.
The love for veterinary medicine is deeply rooted in the Wright family. In the past three generations, 14 members of the Wright family have earned their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine — more than half of them attended WSU.
Howard’s brother Dr. Roy Wright (‘58 DVM) and Howard’s nephew Dr. Robert Wright (‘84 DVM) said it was the family’s dedication to, not only the animals, but the people in the community, that motivated his brother and still motivates his family, who since 1952 have owned and operated Lakewood Veterinary Hospital in Lakewood, Wash.
“It was about service to the community, a service to the animal and a service to ourselves, because this is a service job,” Roy said of his brother Howard. “He loved to help people. He loved being a veterinarian and it was through him most of the family became veterinarians.”
Roy said it was likely Howard and Anne’s love for people that also pushed him to start the Howard L. and E. Anne Wright Scholarship.
“He was very proud of being a veterinarian, and he wanted other people to experience the same greatness of the profession that he did,” Roy said.