Tag: ashland

Humble Gary Wright’s impact was far-reaching to the end

Gary Wright was an accomplished man, although his humble nature kept many people from fully realizing just how much he had achieved.

He was a tremendous businessman and entrepreneur who, after obtaining his master’s degree from Xavier University in Cincinnati, established the Southwestern College of Business in the Cincinnati area. By the time he retired to St. Pete Beach, Florida, in 2004, the college had grown to five locations.

Gary was successful in family life, too. He was married to Jean for 54 years and cared deeply for his daughters, Christine and Holly. Family was of utmost importance to him.

He was also a two-sport star at Ashland High School, starting at second base as a freshman in 1957 through the 1960 spring season. He would walk from Coles Junior High to practice during an era when it was unheard of for freshman to even make the varsity team. Most sophomores never saw a spot on a varsity roster. Gary was invited to try out because he was that good.

Gary Wright, a former Ashland Tomcat baseball and basketball star, started the CP-1 movement with a donation to renovate the big diamond at Central Park in 2008. Through his generosity, hundreds were able to relive their baseball memories.

And then there was basketball. He played two years and helped coach Bob Wright’s first team at Ashland in 1960 win the 16th Region title and earn a berth in the Sweet Sixteen, where a first-round loss to Maysville ended the campaign. His teammates included Larry Conley, Harold Sargent, Gene Smith and the other stars from the 1961 state championship team.

He was instrumental in getting them to the Sweet Sixteen in 1960, scoring double figures in four of his final seven games and making the All-District team.

The two-sport athlete was good enough to earn a scholarship to Centre College, where he played both sports for four years while earning his undergraduate degree. Gary’s love of sports was paying off handsomely.

Among Gary’s many attributes was his love of family, friends and teammates. He also loved growing up in Ashland with his brothers, Robert and Tony, and with a mother (Geneva) and father (T.R.) who did what they could to help their boys succeed. All three brothers were good athletes, and that upbringing helped set Gary on a path that would serve him well.

He cherished his days in Ashland during the 1950s. Like many boys of that time, Central Park was his playground, a place where all worries went away, where skills were learned and then showcased on the big diamond they called CP-1. His father knew how important it was to get boys started young, putting together Pony League teams, taking them all over to play. He had a hand in bringing Babe Ruth baseball and American Legion baseball to town.

T.R. Wright coached his son — and many other boys — during the 1950s and helped lay the groundwork for a tremendous youth baseball program that brought state and even national acclaim to Ashland. He did it on the fields at Central Park, and the cathedral of them all was CP-1. It was called that because of the newspaper. When they ran the list of schedules for the week, they listed the fields as CP-1 and CP-2, which was later mostly used for softball and now soccer.

With Gary’s career established and retirement just beginning, he returned to Ashland in 2008 and visited that big diamond again. He ran onto the field, breathed in the air, ran his fingers through the sand, and the memories of those good days flooded his mind. He could picture scooping up the grounder – and a handful of sand – or delivering the game-winning hit with the crack of bat – not the ping we hear now. He could see how pleased his father was with all the boys as they practiced what he had preached.

Gary was overwhelmed by the emotions that came from his visit, and in true Gary Wright fashion, he did something about it. The field was badly in need of renovation, but talk wasn’t going to make that happen. He put $125,000 behind a renovation project that included a new press box named in his father’s honor.

That same day, when Gary visited his old playing grounds, he ran into his friend David Carter, who had similar experiences at CP-1. Together, they began what was coined the “CP-1 Movement,” and boy, did it ever move.

There were annual reunions for former players, coaches, umpires and fans who remembered playing on that diamond.

Carter, an entrepreneur himself, had the vision for a documentary. He put together “Ashland’s Field of Dreams,” and it aired on KET. It was so well done that it continues to air every year. Interviews with people who played at the park brought out raw emotion, and Carter, who passed away a couple of years ago, captured it brilliantly.

The reunions eventually evolved into the CP-1 Hall of Fame. That is when I became intimately involved, spearheading the event from 2015 through 2024, when 101 former players, coaches, umpires and one sportswriter were recognized each August.

It became a summer event that everybody looked forward to — a time for the reunion of teams and the reliving of days gone by. Treasured memories spilled out around that field again. There were tales of long home runs, bad hops in the sandy infield and the short right-field fence that gave us some cheap home runs.

You could almost see the kid come out in these men who may have played there decades earlier.

It never would have happened without Gary Wright’s compassion for what he had experienced there and his wildly generous donation that helped turn what had become a rundown baseball field into a showcase. When the old players came home, they could not believe their eyes.

This wasn’t the first time Gary’s generosity brought joy through baseball. His name adorns the baseball field at Centre College to this day.

But Gary was much more than a generous and kind man. He gave of himself — not just his money — to projects he cared deeply about helping. When I told him about a Christian ministry called Amy for Africa that was educating children in Uganda, he sent a large donation. Nobody asked him for it.

He simply wanted to make an impact wherever he could, and he had a soft spot for children.

You only get so many chances in life to make a difference, and it’s not always about finances. If you counted Gary Wright as a friend — and anybody who ever met him did — consider yourself fortunate.

His life had the kind of meaning everybody chases. He modeled a compassionate life in every way. How could he make his hometown — and, for that matter, the world — better? He did it with action, with thought and with confidence.

What he did by starting the CP-1 Movement brought joy to countless people. He stirred an abundance of memories and gave those who often thought they had been forgotten one more chance to be in the spotlight.

But not once did he want that spotlight on himself.

It was never about him.

It was always about others.

I loved calling him and talking about how the latest class of the CP-1 Hall of Fame reacted to the celebration — how some were overcome with emotion, choking back tears while giving their induction speeches.

“Chills!” he would say to me.

Gary died on August 20 at the age of 84 after a courageous battle with Parkinson’s. There will be no memorial service, per his wishes.

Gary Wright stayed humble to the end, but his impact will not be forgotten.

Steve Gilmore: A hero in his Ashland hometown

Steve Gilmore held three of the most volatile positions that anyone could have in Ashland – the city mayor, the school superintendent and the Tomcat head basketball coach.

Those are three of the most second-guessed jobs in Ashland. Every decision is publicly scrutinized, criticized and magnified unfairly. In Gilmore’s case though, at the end of the day, those decisions he made were more often than not celebrated.

“Everybody is a coach, and everybody is a mayor, and everybody thinks they want to be superintendent,” Gilmore told me in one of several stories that was written about him. “I think you develop perspectives. You learn perspective so much better. You don’t have that growing up and in the eye of the storm.”

He’s made friends and made enemies, pleased some and angered others. But, along the way, Gilmore said he’s always tried to be fair. He also considered himself fortunate to have lived and worked in a place he loved so much.

“I’ve been the most blessed person in my hometown,” he told me. “I may be the most blessed person anywhere.”

Gilmore has stood firm even in the face of criticism be it as the Tomcat basketball coach, city commissioner, mayor or superintendent.

Steve Gilmore presented me with “Mark Maynard Day” after retiring from the newspaper in 2017. He was always a friend even if the story didn’t go the way he may have liked.

The late David Payne, of his best friends, once told me about Gilmore: “He stands by what he believes. You have to admire that. All those jobs have their share of second-guessing. But he never backs down.”

Heartfelt tributes are pouring in for Gilmore, who died early Wednesday morning after an extended illness. He is a giant in Ashland lore, somebody who had a deep love for the city where he grew up and a favorite son whose impact will be felt for generations to come whether it was in politics or school administration.

But he’s even more Ashland than that. Gilmore pitched in the first Little League game in Ashland history in 1955, played against the great 1961 Tomcats as a high-scoring star for Holy Family and became the youngest coach in Ashland history at 27 years old in 1972. He was also on the ground floor of the rebuild of Putnam Stadium which today is one of the state’s best places to watch high school football.

Steve Gilmore was a popular politician who was a city commissioner and eventually the mayor, even running unopposed one term which, at the time, was also a first in Ashland history. Like any politician, he had an ego but he did not let it get in the way of fairness, a trait he carried with him throughout his life.

Gilmore had a sense of Ashland history, too, which was why he was so humbled when awarded the Elks Sports Day recipient in 2012. He was awed by those who had come before him and even helped him become the person he was. The history was important to him.

Steve Gilmore posed with good friends David Payne, Dicky Martin and Donna Childers Suttle at Putnam Stadium in 2014. Gilmore was the Ashland school superintendent who was on the ground floor of the rebuild that was completed this fall.

Few have had the passion for the city Gilmore exhibited, said Charlie Reliford in a 2012 interview. During Reliford’s umpiring days, he was nicknamed “Mr. Ashland” for his constant references to his hometown.

“As I started to leave Ashland — and you know how much I care about Ashland — I always felt like he cared more than I did. He took the job as mayor when Ashland Oil was leaving, and it looked like hard times. But he made things better. He’s always been a great representative of Ashland, Kentucky, no matter what he was doing.”

Gilmore was a standout basketball player for Holy Family, where he graduated in 1961, and he went on to play four years of basketball at Rio Grande. The basketball teams from Gilmore’s era still meet every year for reunions, a testament to the closeness of the players and coach. He returned home after college, landing a job as a teacher/coach at Putnam Junior High. That started him on a long and highly successful trek right here in his hometown.

“This school district has been my life and it’s been good to me. It’s the people who you teach with, coach with and interact with that make it special,” Gilmore said during an interview after he was awarded as a Distinguished Tomcat. “It’s an older community, and I’m part of that. The whole community is Ashland, and I wouldn’t trade this town for any town in the world.”

Steve Gilmore spent a lifetime of serving Ashland in various capacities. He died on Dec. 11 at 81.

Gilmore’s journey took him from Ashland to Rio Grande and back to Ashland again where he remained a friend and vital cog in the community for more than five decades.

Ashland was home for him, and he didn’t want to be anyplace else.

“I’ve said this many times — and I certainly didn’t coin the phrase — but it’s hard to be a hero in your hometown,” Gilmore once told me.

In the case of Steve Gilmore, though, the cape with the A on it fits more perfectly than he dared to dream.

He will be remembered that way in Ashland. A hero, and a friend to the end. RIP, good friend.