Burton B Wright III

In Loving Memory of Burton B. Wright III Monday, October 5, 2026 Visitation: 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Funeral Service: 12:00 p.m. Betts & West Funeral Home 404 North Main Street Nicholasville, KY 40356 Graveside service to follow Bluegrass Memorial Gardens 4915 Harrodsburg Road Nicholasville, KY 40356 Family and friends are welcome to gather in remembrance. Burton B. Wright III — Service Information

I was in California the day after Chet was born! Burton was so excited! On The way home he played a part of the Messiah. I asked him why and he said he wanted Chet to know he was in the place he was meant to be . While Lisa was pregnant he played this music in the car and at home. It worked! If he got fussy all we had to do was play this music and he quieted down! He held him on his chest while he was writing C+ talking to him all the time! Hearing is the first sense and the last one that you lose! He was a great father and Chet always knew how much he was loved.

Burton B. Wright III was born in Knoxville in 1968. During his lifetime, the city welcomed the world to its 1982 World’s Fair, built the Sunsphere, and brought new life to its downtown. Across Tennessee, new industries and visitors changed the state, while its mountains and music remained familiar. Dolly Parton called it “My Tennessee Mountain Home.” That song title feels right for the place where Burton’s story began. His life later took him to Kentucky, where he made a home with Lisa and Chet. Knoxville changed over the years, but Tennessee would always be part of his beginning.

On Friday, August 9, 1968, Burton B. Wright III was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. The national news that morning followed Richard Nixon’s acceptance of the Republican presidential nomination the night before, as the Vietnam War continued. Those were the headlines of the day. For Burton’s family, his arrival was the story that mattered most.

A Love of the Classics and a Life of Curiosity Long before Burton built a career in technology, his intellectual world was shaped by the Classics. After graduating from Washington and Lee University, Burton earned a master’s degree in Classical Languages from the University of Kentucky and later pursued doctoral studies in Classics in Toronto. Although he eventually realized that an academic career was not the life he wanted, he never lost the curiosity and love of learning that had drawn him to the ancient world in the first place. The Classics suited the way Burton approached life. He wanted to understand things—ideas, people, technology and the world around him. He asked questions, looked beneath the surface and remained interested not simply in knowing what something was, but in understanding why and how it worked. His decision to leave academia was, in its own way, an expression of that intellectual independence. Burton and Lisa packed virtually everything they owned into a crate and a car and headed for California, where Burton entered the emerging technology industry. His subjects changed dramatically—from ancient languages and civilizations to computer chips and 3-D graphics—but the curious mind behind them did not. For Burton, education was never simply preparation for a career. Learning was part of a life well lived. His journey from the Classics to Silicon Valley reflected a willingness to explore, to change direction, to master something new and to remain curious about what might be around the next corner. Several quotations seem particularly fitting for the Burton remembered by his family and friends: “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” — Socrates, as presented by Plato “The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates, Plato’s Apology “The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” — Plutarch “The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.” — Seneca “Not all those who wander are lost.” — J.R.R. Tolkien Perhaps the simplest and most fitting is the first. Burton’s life was marked by a sense of wonder—the desire to learn something new, understand something complicated, take something apart intellectually and discover how it worked. “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” For Burton, it seems, wonder never really ended

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Burton’s memory to the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Foundation, reflecting both his enduring connection to the University of Kentucky and the hope that advances in cancer research and treatment will benefit others.