RICHARD CLEMENT WOOD

I thought so much of Richard Wood that I gave my first son his last name as a middle name. He had a habit or technique of talking around a point and then coming back to it which I adopted. I wish I had kept up with him through the years.

Mr. Wood was my advisor and good friend at Randolph-Macon College from about 1962 to 1965.
I treasured his words and sat on the edge of my seat writing furiously trying to capture their magic. Once he gave such an eloquent introduction of a visiting poet that poet exclaimed, "We should all go home now. That should be the lecture!"
I baby-sat Matthew, as a cute little towhead, and, of course, Virginia was alive and healthy. She advised me to go into the Peace Corp. She was a good...

I was a student of Richard Wood at Randolph-Macon College. He encouraged me in classroom and in wonderful private mentoring meetings to become a writer. I have kept in touch with a few of my English major classmates who idolized Prof. Wood, as I have.
Thank you, Dick!

I, too, was blessed to have "Doc" Wood as a professor in the 1980s. In addition to the genuine love of literature he shared with his students, which others have already described so vividly, Doc had a gift for illuminating little details in life that should be cherished. For example, before I took his class, I had never considered the value of everyday courtesies like speaking to people, friends and strangers alike, as I walked across campus. I learned to appreciate them at Rhodes. In the...

Goodnight sweet prince, and flights of angels sing you to your rest.

I was lucky to have "Doc Wood" as my English professor in the 1980's. I remember him reciting his favorite passages - his arms tensed and his eyes sparkling as he paced back and forth. At the end of a moving sentence, he would close his eyes and tilt his head up, then be silent for what seemed like too long to a college kid - but of course wasn't too long at all.

We students watched him fall into his favorite words, let those words flow through him. And when we were brave enough, we...

What a wonderful man. His enthusiasm for well crafted language was infectious. I had the privilege of being in some of his first classes at Rhodes. After all these years, it is his classes that I remember most fondly of all of my academic experiences. Any mention of Chaucer reminds me of his convincingly natural sounding recitations in the original English and I can picture him beaming as he spoke the words that he so plainly loved.

Prof Wood taught John Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained and acted out each scene. I will never forget his lecturing, walking back and forth across the front of the classroom, eyes closed. When he described Eve taking a bite of the apple he rolled up his sleeve as he walked. At the moment she bit into the apple, he acted out the ecstasy of an addict shooting up heroin. Few teachers could convey the essence of literature as he could. I will never forget him. RIP dear teacher.