Wright, Joan Byrnes | Sargeant Memorial Collection

Name: Wright, Joan Byrnes

Historical Note: Norfolk native Joan Byrnes Wright attended Holy Trinity Catholic School and graduated from Catholic High School in 1952. She earned an Associate of Arts Degree from the Norfolk Division of The College of William and Mary/Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1954, and went on to earn her BS in Secondary Education in 1971, and then her MS in Education with a concentration in Botany in 1981, both from Old Dominion University. From 1979 to 1999 she taught in the Virginia Beach Public School System, first at Brandon Junior High School and later at Tallwood High School. She was an interpreter and naturalist at Seashore State Park for 20 years and served as a botanical researcher for Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. She also co-authored three articles in the Back Bay Symposium and published in the Rhodora: Journal of the New England Botanical Society. After retiring, she was active in the Virginia Beach Genealogical Society where she taught and served as President and held various board positions. She was a member of The Virginia Historical Society, National Genealogical Society, Tidewater Genealogical Society, Virginia Genealogical Society, Family Research Society of Northeastern North Carolina, Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society, and the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History.

Records or Manuscript Collections Created by Wright, Joan Byrnes