Mr Wright was born in Mosgiel and at three months old, he moved to his grandfather’s farm in Wendonside, about 50km from Gore.
After studying at the University of Canterbury and working overseas, he returned to the farm to work in 1981 and has been there ever since.
In 2005, struggling to balance the books on the farm, he fell into depression.
"It just felt like a rock was growing in my chest every day, getting bigger and bigger and heavier. By the time I went to a counsellor I could hardly breathe," he said.
He went to counselling for six months, and in his first session, he broke down straight away.
The therapy helped him decide to lease out his farm in 2006.
About a year later, his experiences led to the creation of a rural mental health initiative, which still runs today.
A dozen years ago, he set up a rural mental health literacy workshop programme called GoodYarns, which encourages farmers to be open about the pressures of the job.
In total, about 24,000 people throughout the country have attended the wellbeing workshops, Mr Wright said.
He is also one of the inaugural trustees of the Rural Support Trust, which was set up in 2008.
During the outbreaks of animal diseases Bonamia oestra and Mycoplasma bovis in 2017, he advised people who had lost their jobs and businesses.
He also assisted people in the aftermath of natural disasters, such as the 2010 snowstorm and the 2020 floods in Southland.
He retired from his duties with the Rural Support Trust last year, and recently stepped down from running the GoodYarns workshops.
He said being awarded the King’s Service Medal was "gratifying" and "humbling".
"A lot of it has come from just working with people ... you’re one part of a big machine," he said.
