This story of Sharon’s life serves as a looking glass into who she is and from whence she has come. Her story revolves around family, hard work, community service and a special love for the young and the young at heart. Although, like many of us, she has been challenged by untimely losses she has continued to live a life of giving and accomplishment. Asked what she believes in, Sharon will tell you that she believes in family, service, freedom and economic opportunity. The following is a glimpse into many of the experiences that have forged Sharon’s character and her abilities.
Sharon was born in a small West Texas town. Her early childhood years were spent on her grandparents’ family farm which her parents worked after her father returned from WWII. One of her earliest childhood memories is visiting the reservation where her Cherokee great grandmother was raised. She still treasures the belt that the reservation women beaded for her so many years ago.
After just a few years of farming and in what was to become a theme during her youth the family moved. This move was “into town” where Sharon started first grade. Her father opened a Five and Dime store and her mother ran a florist shop out of their front bedroom to make ends meet .
Then every thing changed again. When the Korean War broke out her father was called back into active duty. Sharon’s family was now an Army family, moving from place to place around the world. Perhaps because of her basic sociable nature these moves only served to hone her natural predisposition and ability to get on well with strangers.
Atlanta, Georgia, was their first Army home. They lived there for three years. When her father shipped out to Korea, Sharon, her brother and mother, returned to Texas, but not for long. Within a year, they moved again, this time to Okinawa. This was a dramatic change for a little girl from a small Texas town – the faces, the language, the food, the smells --- her whole world was different. And in this context Sharon began to develop both the critical social skills and open-mindedness to other cultures that would serve her well in the years to come.
Another year, another move. The family packed up again, this time headed back to San Antonio, Texas. They remained there long enough for Sharon to complete junior high. Then her father was transferred to Virginia where Sharon graduated from a High School located on the Chesapeake Bay.
Right after graduation, Sharon accompanied her family to Germany, an incredible opportunity for a young person on the edge of adulthood. There she completed two years of college and traveled throughout Europe, including a ten day student tour behind the iron curtain” including Moscow. Because this period marked the zenith of Soviet Communism, Sharon witnessed totalitarianism first hand. She remembers to this day the sense of oppression and lack of optimism in these countries. That visit had a profound and lasting impact on her and became the catalyst for many of her firmly held economic beliefs and firm dedication to the need for economic vitality and social freedom.
After Europe, it was back to Texas to study business administration and economics at Texas Tech. While in college Sharon began her life long work with young people. Throughout her childhood, she had been actively involved in Girl Scouts, earning the Curved Bar, the highest of Girl Scouting’s awards. It was these early experiences that formed a solid foundation that would benefit her and those around her for the rest of her life. As a college student she reconnected to these roots and became a Girl Scout leader. During this period Sharon began to formulate a profound understanding of the positive effects adults could have on the young.
After college, she moved once more with her family to Oklahoma and began her first career in banking on the base at Fort Sill. She starting out as a bookkeeper and advancing rapidly to loan officer. During that time, she met her first husband at a square dance and married in 1966. They subsequently moved to California.
Sharon had always looked forward to the day that she would have children of her own. This dream was fulfilled with the adoption of identical twin boys. Sharon felt fortunate to have the opportunity to be a stay-at-home-mom until the boys started school. During this time she helped organize a much needed twins club. She was, of course, the first President, and continued in that position until the club was up and running.
With the boys in school, she returned to banking. Very soon thereafter, she took another position as an executive manager of a Chamber of Commerce. Under her leadership, the Chamber grew from 200 members to over 900. In 1979, she was named the best “New” Chamber Executive in California.
With all of the zest and optimism that have become her hallmarks, Sharon worked hard to provide her boys with good values and meaningful opportunities. She remained active in her sons’ lives, serving on school site committees, soccer leagues, basketball leagues and Boy Scouts.
In 1981, she and the boys moved to Santa Rosa. The boys began attending junior high and Santa Rosa quickly became “home”. Sharon took a part time job with the fledgling Sonoma County Alliance and then moved on to become the Manager of the Downtown Development Association.
Then tragedy hit. Life changed forever on December 14, 1982. A parent’s worst nightmare became a reality when one of her 14 year old boys was killed, hit head-on by a car while riding his bicycle to school. Despite her overwhelming sorrow and extreme emotional pain Sharon soldiered on. Firmly resolved, she continued, despite her grief, to be a good Mom and provider. She formed her own consulting business, Wright and Associates and, with much hard work, it began to thrive. Not only was she working successfully with businesses and non-profits, but she was also launching visionary programs that are still successfully in place today. She was one of the first directors of Leadership Santa Rosa (LSR) and the founder and director of Tomorrow’s Leaders Today (TLT), an innovative program which involves young people and educates them in the key issues and challenges facing Sonoma County.
In 1988 she met Jay who was Senior Vice President of a local bank. They fell in love and married in 1990. Together they created a home that became a haven for young people. Three of her son’s friends, each of whom had lost their parents, became part of a happy, extended family.
Although Sharon (herself) had never aspired to elected office, in 1991 she was encouraged to run for a seat on the Santa Rosa City Council and in 1992 she was elected. She served for twelve years, three terms as mayor. One of her first accomplishments was starting the Teen Council which resulted in her becoming affectionately known as “Mayor Mom”. Throughout her three terms as mayor, Sharon held true to her motto, “Keep your word and get things done.”
In the ensuing years, Jay and Sharon combined their skills and resources. With Jay on the Board of Burbank Housing, a non profit builder of low income homes, and Sharon as Mayor they brought together a model public and private sector effort to improve the community. Working as a team, and with the resident of Apple Valley and Papago Court in Northwest Santa Rosa they forced out slum landlords and cleaned up deteriorated homes. The results were a better and safer community as well as affordable housing for low income families, all testimonies to Jay and Sharon’s efforts.
With a loving husband, a house full of young people and meaningful work in a city she called home, her life was satisfying and fulfilling. Then tragedy struck once again. Jay was diagnosed with cancer and given less than a year to live. With Sharon close by his side, he lived out his days with dignity, hope and a sense of humor.
Despite her world once again turned upside down and grieving the loss of her husband Sharon continued her dedication to and work in the community. She continued serving as Mayor, as well as Director of the Sonoma County Alliance and Director of both LSR Santa Rosa and TLT. All through this trying time, she persisted with all her many commitments, persevering with hope and optimism. The lessons she will tell you she once again learned during this time of pain and loss were about accepting help, cherishing friendships; lessons of commitment and love.
Her late husband, Jay, had been an only child, and Sharon promised him that she would look after his mother, Becky. Becky lived in Davis, California, was a remarkable woman – independent, committed to young people and to making the world a better place. Becky had served on the Davis School Board for thirty-four years; last elected when she was eighty-four. During the five years that Sharon watched over her, she gleaned invaluable lessons from the older woman – lessons about aging with grace as well as new insights into many of the health care problems that impact our senior citizens.
Now Sharon is ready to go back into public service. In her view, she can help government at all levels work more closely and effectively together. Such cooperation will, in her experience, be a critical factor in addressing and overcoming the challenges necessary to achieving a better Sonoma County. Her extraordinary public career and her success at building coalitions have prepared her well to represent the broad needs of the Third District. Not only does she have the invaluable experience of having worked successfully as Mayor of Santa Rosa, she also has had the privilege of serving; on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (the transportation funding agency for the entire Bay area), as a charter board member of SMART, as a Sonoma County Planning Commissioner and was appointed by the Governor to serve as an alternate on the California Coastal Commission.
Sharon has shown herself to be remarkably competent in each of these endeavors. Her public service experience is historically unprecedented in a Supervisory candidate. Coupled with a lifetime of rich personal experiences that have honed her people skills and more importantly taught her empathy and .perseverance Sharon’s public service record makes her the ideal candidate for the Sonoma County board of Supervisors.
