WRIGHT, Lionel was born in Paterson, New Jersey on February 18, 1935. After he retired in 1979, he moved with his wife, the former Harriett Symmes, to her hometown of Tampa, Florida. He died there on December 18, 2007. Besides Harriett, he is survived by his sister, Connie Hayton of Montclair, New Jersey; a niece, Erica Karakis of Scotch Plains, New Jersey; a nephew, Bruce Weller of San Jose, California; grand nephews and nieces, Victoria and Alexander Karakis; Brian and Andrea Weller; Harriett’s daughter, Stephanie Clark-Comer of Wharton, New Jersey will miss him too. Lionel was an uncommon person with a many faceted personality. When he was a teenager he became so adept at knife throwing that he was able to place an outline of knives around the body of an assistant, a young female friend, but when he tried to enter this act in the Eastside High School Talent show, the horrified teacher would have none of it. He found a more acceptable high school pursuit in the editorship of the Criterion, Eastside’s award-winning school newspaper. When he was 18, he fulfilled a long held fantasy by joining the Mills Brothers Circus, a traveling tent show, where, through a lucky chain of events, he attained the position of Prop Boss, enabling him to mingle not only with roustabouts but also with performers. His best friends were the dwarf clowns, Jeff and June, a married couple from England. After a year he left the circus and was soon drafted into the Army. He joined a tank battalion, and, noting certain similarities between tanks and elephants, became as fond of his tank as he had been of Jenny, his favorite circus elephant. So great was his affection for tanks that when his enlistment was up he avoided becoming an infantryman in the Army Reserves by joining a Nation Guard tank outfit. His next job was with Bond Parade Floats, a company that built floats for the many ethnic parades in New York City and elsewhere. He remained at Bond until his retirement 40 years later, honing his skills as a fine carpenter and creating props for the floats, everything from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Parthenon. From early childhood, Lionel had a passion for books, not only for their intellectual content, but also for their physical characteristics; bindings, paper, type face.