William Joseph Wright worked for the National Park Service (NPS) for more than 39 years. He was born July 22, 1962, in Durant, Oklahoma, and raised in South Dakota. In 1985, he graduated from Southeastern Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in recreation and resource management.

Wright began working for NPS in the early 1980s as a fee collector for the Chickasaw National Recreation Area before becoming a seasonal law enforcement ranger. He also worked at the Statue of Liberty National Memorial, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Independence National Historic Park, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Buffalo National River, Big Bend National Park, Everglades National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. He is the only person to serve as chief ranger at three major national parks.

He began his final NPS position in 2015 as the Chickasaw National Recreation Area superintendent before retiring in December 2022. A proud Chickasaw, he was honored to work with the Chickasaw Nation on the Inkana Bridge and Trail and the relocation of the park’s headquarters to the Chickasaw Visitor Center.

Wright is a graduate of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Academy. He received a graduate certificate in executive leadership from the University of Virginia.

He served as president of the Sulphur Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Leadership Murray County Board of Directors and Sulphur Rotary Club, where he received the Paul Harris award. He is the current president of the Oklahoma School for the Deaf Foundation Board of Directors and has been a member of the Masonic Lodge since 1985. Wright serves on the boards of the Lake of the Arbuckles Watershed Association, the Arbuckle Historical Society and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum Board of Trustees. He received the Leadership Murray County Leader of the Year and Dee Lannom Citizen of the Year awards.

Wright and his wife, Misty Seagle, now live on a ranch near Sulphur.