MCI’s Wright Will Again Try to Step Down

V. Orville Wright will retire from MCI Communications’ unique office of the chief executive while continuing to serve as vice chairman and a member of the long-distance company’s board. William G. McGowan, the company’s founder, will resume sole responsibilities as chairman and chief executive.

It marks the second retirement from MCI for Wright. He first left active service in 1985 but was named acting chief executive two years later when McGowan suffered a heart attack. On McGowan’s return after a heart-transplant operation, Wright was named to the “office of the chief executive.”

Wright joined MCI in 1975 as president and chief operating officer after a career in a number of high-technology companies, including IBM, Xerox and RCA. Since 1975, Washington-based MCI grew from virtually a start-up concern into the nation’s second-largest long-distance carrier. It had 1989 revenue of $6.5 billion.