Quincy Wright - Biography

Biography

Born in Medford, Massachusetts, Wright received his B.A. from Lombard College in 1912. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1915. He joined the department of social sciences at the University of Chicago in 1923 and remained there until 1956, when he became Professor of International Law in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia. Following his retirement at Virginia in 1961, he was a Visiting Professor in numerous universities in the United States and abroad. In 1927, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was one of the co-founders of Chicago's Committee On International Relations in 1928, the first graduate program in international relations established in the United States. In addition to his academic work, Wright was an adviser to Justice Robert H. Jackson at the Nuremberg Trials, and often provided advice to the U.S. State Department.

Wright served as president of several scholarly bodies, including the American Association of University Professors (1944–46), the American Political Science Association (1948–49), the International Political Science Association (1950–1952), and the American Society of International Law (1955–56). He was a member of the editorial board of the American Association of International Law from 1923 until his death. He was also active in the U.S. United Nations Association. See Eleanor R. Finch, "Quincy Wright, 1890-1970" (obituary), The American Journal of International Law 65 (January 1971): 130-131.

Wright's brothers were the geneticist Sewall Wright and the aeronautical engineer Theodore Paul Wright.