COLLAPSE AT DINNER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17173, 1 February 1930, Page 5

COLLAPSE AT DINNER

MR. A. M. WRIGHT DIES FOREMOST CHEMIST (Special to the Herald.) (’IfRIKTCHU’RCtI, this day. Mr. A. M. WrigTit, widely known throughout New Zealand as chief chemist to (ho New Zealand Refrigerating Co., Ltd., collapsed and (lied while presiding over tjie dinner of the New Zealand branch of the Institute ot Chemists at the Royal Hotel last night. The cause of death was cerebral haemorrhage. Mr. Wright was 49 years of age. . . Mr. Allister AlacLean, Wright was recognised as the foremost authority in Australia and New Zealand in his particular branch of science, and by his death the refrigerating industry lias lost one of its most distinguished and most valuable technical workers. Born in Palmerston North in 1881, the son of the Rev. A. AI. Wright, a Presbyterian minister, he was educated at the Christchurch Boys’ High School, Canterbury Agricultural College, and Canterbury College. He studied medicine first, but left it to specialise in chemistry. In 1902 he was appointed chief chemist to the New Zealand Refrigerating Co., with headquarters at Islington, and except for an intermission of three years when on war service he held this position continuously till the time of his death. Thus he had seen the frozen meat industry grow from small beginnings to its present very large dimensions. From 1916 to 1919 Air. Wright served with the New Zealand Medical Corps, leaving with the seventeenth reinforcements and taking the rank of captain. He did very valuable work in bacteriology at C'odford military camp. He was recognised as the best authority in Australia and New Zealand on tin* preparation of meat meals and stock food made from freezing works produets. In these questions he was adviser to several companies besides his own Mr. Wright was a prominent and popular member of the Masonic craft.