John Donald “Jack” Wood, age 84, passed away Oct. 8, 2014, surrounded by his wife of 58 years and all four of his children. Jack was born in Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 2, 1930. During his long and productive life, he lived in Kansas City; Beaumont, Texas; Houston; Short Hills, N.J.; Ridgefield, Conn.; Hunting Valley, Ohio; Florence, S.C.; Hilton Head Island, S.C.; Oak Harbor, Wash.; and Coupeville, Wash.
Jack was preceded in death by his father, Gordon Blake Wood, and mother, Ruth Florence (Rodekopf) Wood, of Kansas City; brother, Robert Gordon Wood of Colorado; sister, Marilyn Ruth Cousins of Kansas; and his niece, Gretchen Mertel McDonald, of California. He is survived by his wife, Gretchen (Hunt) Wood, of Coupeville; his sister, Elizabeth Joan Mertel, of Novato, Calif.; and his four children, Kristina Marie Wood of Richmond, Calif., John D. Wood Jr. of Charleston, S.C., Gordon Blake Wood of Vashon, Wash., and Amy Wood Daly of Seattle and her two children, Jack’s grandchildren, Wyeth and Aida.
Jack attended Southwest High School in Kansas City, graduating in 1947. While in high school, he played football, basketball and was a high jumper on the track team, setting the state high jump record in his senior year. Jack attended the University of Missouri in Columbia from 1947 to 1951, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree, first in the class from the school of business and public administration.
Jack entered the U.S. Navy in 1951, attending officer candidate school in Newport, R.I., graduating first in the class of 250 officers. He served on board the USS Cambria (APA-36) from January 1952 through November 1954. He served as First Division officer and as Boat Group Commander while on board the Cambria. He was released from active duty in September of 1954 as a Lieutenant (Junior Grade).
He joined the Vendo Company in Kansas City in 1954 and served as research analyst and later as a sales representative. In 1957, Jack joined the company he would work with for the next 30 years: Union Carbide Corporation. He served in the Linde division as a sales representative, first in Beaumont, and then in Houston. He was transferred to New York City in 1964, serving as national staff manager for electric welding in the distributor products department. He served as product manager and market manager of several business groups within the welding products department in New York until 1971, when he was promoted to general manager of the welding materials group, managing factories in Ashtabula, Ohio and in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
In 1985, the welding products department was bought out by L-Tec Welding and Cutting Systems, an independent limited partnership that included Jack. He had so earned the respect of his workers that they erected a banner at one of the factories that welcomed Jack to “Wood’s Wire Works” the day after the buyout was announced. In 1988, L-Tec was purchased by ESAB, the world’s largest welding products company, headquartered in Sweden. He continued to serve as executive vice president of L-Tec until retirement in 1990.
Jack and Gretchen moved to Whidbey Island in 1995 and then built a house that Jack had designed using a home design software program he found on a computer his son gave him. Jack had never used computers during his working years, but in his own words, he became a bit of a “low technology computer nerd” in retirement, using his computer for hours on his investment records and analysis programs. Jack was an active member of St. Augustine’s in-the-Woods Episcopal Church in Freeland, Wash., a founding member of St. Augustine’s Peace Fellowship, and worked for more than 10 years in the Hearts and Hammers community program, which repaired houses of the elderly so they could remain in their homes longer. Jack was always very handy and enjoyed woodworking and building various projects throughout his life, but nothing gave him as much joy as helping others.
In 1998, Jack started volunteering with Washington’s Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) and spent thousands of hours over the next 16 years helping the elderly navigate the myriad health insurance options available. He said that this work gave him as much joy as any work he had done in his life and he continued counseling for SHIBA right up to his final months.
Jack worked hard at everything he committed to. True to form, he worked as hard in retirement as he did in his working life. He touched many lives and tried to leave the world a better place. We will all miss him.
