Sierra Nevada publisher, pilot dies

LOYALTON, Calif. - Hal Wright, an editor and publisher who delivered his newspaper to remote ranches in the Sierra Nevada by dropping copies from the window of his small plane, has died. He was 96.

Wright, who ran the biweekly Sierra Booster for a half-century, died at his Loyalton home on June 24. His wife, Allene, died in January at age 88.

Wright was still flying earlier this year, but with another licensed pilot accompanying him, said his son, Maynard, who as a child accompanied his father on delivery flights.

''He could certainly put a newspaper fairly close - definitely put it in the front yard, sometimes right on the front porch. Now of course if the wind is blowing hard, then all bets are off and you can't really do that,'' Maynard Wright said Tuesday from his home in Citrus Heights. ''He has put it on the roof, but not too often.''

Hal Wright reported local news, especially on issues involving forests and cattle, from rural Sierra, Nevada, Plumas and Lassen counties and sometimes across the state line in western Nevada. He also wrote an editorial in each issue.

Wright's wife, known to readers as ''Sweetie Pie,'' helped him put out the paper until a few years ago.

''Before computers were available she typed every column twice - once to establish the justification and then the next to set the justification on the IBM Selectric to make it come out right,'' Maynard Wright said. ''It was quite a labor for the two of them to run this paper all those years.''

Wright published the first edition of the Sierra Booster on Oct. 21, 1949, and started his aerial paper route in the 1950s, dropping rolled-up copies out the window of his single-engine Aeronca Sedan as he swooped over isolated homes and mines.

''From an airplane you can throw something fairly accurately,'' his son said. ''In fact it makes a more accurate throwing platform than does a bicycle if you happen to be a newsboy.''

In the 1970s, news stories about Wright's aerial delivery made him famous.

He kept flying despite his age, and passed medical tests in the mid-1990s when the Federal Aviation Administration sought to revoke his license.

Born April 1, 1904, in San Francisco, Wright worked jobs ranging from typewriter salesman to manufacturing plant foreman and gold miner before taking up publishing.

An avid hiker, he and his bride spent their honeymoon backpacking in the Sierra.

He began flying in 1949, first in a Piper Cub and then in the Aeronca, which he also used to take aerial photographs that he published in the paper.

In addition to his son, Wright is survived by Janice Buck and Lori Wright, both of Loyalton. Buck put out the paper in recent months and will continue to run it.

A memorial service is scheduled Saturday at Nervino Field in Beckwourth, where Wright kept his plane.