Rodney Wood

Rodney D. Wood CHARLOTTE - Rodney D. Wood, of Charlotte, NC, age 86, died Thursday, December 27, 2018, of complications from heart failure. He was born in Lansing, Michigan, and grew up near there on a small farm. Rod graduated from Yale, majoring in Chemical Engineering, and received a Master's degree from Michigan State and a Ph. D. from Northwestern. He was a National Science Foundation Fellow, and a member of the honorary societies Sigma Xi and Pi Tau Sigma. Rod began his career as an instructor at the University of Nebraska, and he continued his career at Texas Instruments, Sherwin-Williams, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He developed innovative solutions in areas ranging from fuel cell design to production efficiency and air quality. After retiring to Charlotte, Rod joined SCORE, the small business service organization. He created a workshop for beginning entrepreneurs in 1997 that still continues. In his spare time, he was an earnest golfer and shared his talent and love for bridge through an instruction program that he created. Rod was first and foremost a family man. He was devoted to his wife, Molly, a Kindergarten teacher, who died in 1988. In her memory, Rod established an endowment program at the school where she taught. He loved his four children and their spouses; his twelve grandchildren; and Carla Ashton, his companion of twenty years. Rod's large extended family includes two sisters and a brother, and a dozen nieces and nephews and their families. The family will receive friends at Raintree Country Club at a later date. In lieu of flowers and other memorials, the family would deeply appreciate contributions to the endowment Rod established in his wife's memory. Donations should be made payable to Public Education Foundation and designated for the Stockwell Endowment; and mailed to Public Education Foundation, 100 N. W. Second Street, Suite 120, Evansville, Indiana 47708.