The Rev. Robert W. Wood

1923 - 2018

The Reverend Robert W. Wood, a decorated veteran of World War II and a pre-Stonewall gay activist died on August 19, 2018, at the age of 95. He was the second son of Edith and Harold Wood. Born on May 21, 1923, in Youngstown, Ohio, he also lived in Akron and Lorain where he was active in the Congregational Church's youth activities and the Boy Scouts.

He began his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania in September 1941, just three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Bob enlisted in the Army and began basic infantry training in January 1943 at Camp Walters, Texas. Later that year, when he was 20, Private Wood joined the 36th Infantry Division in the Italian campaign. An enemy bullet hit him directly above his dog tag chain and went clear through his body. Then a bayonet thrust deflated his right lung. He returned to the United States as a litter patient on a hospital ship. After 22 months in military hospitals and rehab, he received an honorable discharge, a Combat Infantry Badge, a Purple Heart, two battle stars, and a Bronze Star for "heroic achievement in combat." He had 40 percent VA disability. The Concord Monitor's book We Went To War has a chapter on him.

In 1960, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, Bob's hardcover book with dust jacket entitled Christ and the Homosexual was published under his own name. It received two awards and sold 3,000 copies. Today, it is on the internet along with information about his years as an early gay rights pioneer. The book was written from a pastoral standpoint and in it Reverend Wood was the first person to call for recognition of same-sex marriage. He has performed them several times before and after legalization.

He met Hugh M. Coulter, an artist and a cowboy, in a gay leather bar in Manhattan in May 1962. They had 27 years together and wore matching gold wedding rings. In June 1965, Bob and Hugh marched in the nation's first gay picket line in Washington, D.C. Hugh died in 1989 at the age of 69 from heart failure. He had served with the United States Air Force during World War II.

Reverend Wood graduated from Oberlin's School of Theology in May 1951 and was ordained on June 17, 1951, at the Congregational Church in Fair Haven, Vt., where his paternal grandparents, and then his parents, were members. He had completed his undergraduate studies at Penn and Oberlin, both on the GI Bill. After two years as number three at the historic Broadway Tabernacle in Manhattan, he served 35 years as a parish pastor. He served first in Spring Valley, N.Y., then Zion United Church of Christ, Newark, N.J. and finally at the Congregational Church in Maynard, Mass. He preached a total of 1,610 Bible-based sermons.

His later years were spent at the Havenwood Retirement Community in Concord, N.H. He was a member of the East Congregational Church. He is survived by his one relative, his nephew Donald N. Wood and his wife Sharon from Florida. Hugh was an only child and, as a gay couple, he and Bob adopted no children. Bob is survived by Stephen Law and Donald Stroud, Robert Paradis and Rejean Blanchette, gay couples he married and Richard Pervonga, a gay widower. Bob's last word was "Hugh."

A memorial service will be held at Havenwood, 33 Christian Ave., Concord, N.H., on Wednesday, October 3, 2018, at 2 p.m.