While working in France, Wright began his own family. On August 17, 1940, he married his wife, Louise Aiken. In an article appearing in "Perspectives" in April 2000, Peter Stansky, Paul Robinson, and Gordon Craig said, "Gordon and Louise were an inseparable couple; she greatly enriched the life of the History Department and of the Stanford community." Together, they had five sons: Eric, Michael, Philip, David, and Gregory. Tragedy struck the family when in 1965 Gregory died of leukemia. Wright and his wife would go on to become the grandparents of six children.