Rev Patricia C. Wood

Reverend Patricia C. Wood, 74 years young, passed away after a brief illness on January 31, 2025, at home in Folsom, CA with her husband, sons and brother-in-law at her side. A Celebration of Life will be held with Reverend Melanie Weiner leading the service on Saturday April 26, 2025 at 11 AM with a reception following in Fellowship Hall at First Congregational Church of San Jose, 1980 Hamilton Ave, San Jose, CA. The Celebration of Life will be recorded and posted online at a later date for anyone who is unable to attend. In lieu of flowers, Patricia has requested that memorials may be directed to Skyland Community Church; P.O. Box 245; Los Gatos, CA 95031-0245 or by electronic giving at Skyland Church Memorial Giving (https://secure.myvanco.com/YKMJ/campaign/C-13EQ5). All donations will go to the many ministries at Skyland Community Church that Patricia and Brian have supported.

Patricia was born January, 1951 in Stockton, CA to Henry and Alice McMurry who lived in Lathrop, CA. She was the oldest of seven children that included six sisters and one brother. She attended East Union High School in Manteca and worked on the Yearbook in her last 3 years of school and was also active in clubs before graduating in 1969. Following graduation she attended San Jose State University obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Literature and Fine Art. She wanted to be an English teacher but the job market in 1973 wasn't cooperating so she got a temp then permanent job at Signetics Semiconductor in Silicon Valley.

She was united in marriage to Joseph Sacco in 1972 during her college days. After college they were busy raising their sons Anthony and David.

She enrolled at a technician training program at work and was promoted to Engineer and later Supervisor during her many years there. She was active in Union organizing during the 70's and later was a member of SWE (Society of Women Engineers).

She was united in marriage to Brian Wood in 1992 where they met at work. They worked with Joseph continuing to raise the boys thru high school and college and continued to participate in their active lives along with the five grandchildren in Folsom. She loved sharing her knowledge with others and the grandchildren treasured their time learning with her. Her infectious smile and kind heart will always be with us. She really enjoyed teaching the "grands" (as she called them) how to make Christmas table decorations, how to make sock puppets, how to make a small quilt in a pattern that each of the girls wanted, fix a broken ear on a stuffed bear, baking, gardening, making tie-dye t-shirts and bead wristbands, nature walks, playing board games, showing them how to paint on the paper but they painted their hands, juicing meyer lemons, reading their favorite books to them and how to shade a drawing for more effect.

Patricia and Brian were active members of Skyland Community Church which was near their home in the Santa Cruz Mountains. One day one of the elders looked at her straight in the eye and asked "have you thought about going to seminary?". Well, that thought was actually already there and in 2007 she started at PSR (Pacific School of Religion) at Berkeley, CA. She earned her MDiv (Masters in Divinity) in 2010. One year later she saw that there was a need for helping people in our local mountain community so she started an all-volunteer non-profit group called Mountain Neighbors Helping Neighbors (MNHN). The group provided rides to/from doctors and dentists, helped to change batteries in smoke alarms and helped to flip an occasional mattress along with providing information about services in the area that were beyond their charter. In 2014 she was ordained into ministry in the United Church of Christ (UCC), serving the Santa Cruz Mountain community as the founder and leader of MNHN until she retired in 2024. All donations that the group had received over the years were donated to Skyland Community Church Giving Tree Ministry that help families and children from local mountain schools during the Christmas season. She also was a Interfaith Spiritual Care Visitor to the residential El Camino Rehabilitation Care Facility in Los Gatos and occasionally for those in the hospital at the same site for three years.

Patricia, Brian and the boys enjoyed many family vacations and camping trips traveling to Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Hawaii and Alaska. Patricia and Brian also traveled to France, Italy, Greece, Finland, Sweden, Norway, London, Scotland, Thailand, Korea, Canada and Mexico with the Canadian Rockies their favorite and last trip.

Patricia was an avid book reader and always had several library books within reach. Weekly trips were sometimes needed as she could finish a book in a week or less. She was also an avid gardener picking out flowers, veggies, fruit & citrus trees and leaving the planting job and drip irrigation to Brian. Many redwood veggie beds were built for the wide variety of plants that she was interested in that continue to provide a colorful backyard of tomatoes, sweet peppers, dill, cabbage and eggplant for us to enjoy along with nectarines, persimmons, apples, apricots, lemons, limes, and oranges. She learned knitting, crocheting, sewing, bread making, cooking and canning from her mom. She won several blue ribbons in the Santa Cruz County Fair and a trophy for Senior Home Arts in Preserved Foods. Her favorite hobbies were photography and water coloring painting and was very talented as she had taken art classes in high school, college and locally.

Survivors include husband Brian, sons Anthony (Stacey) Sacco; David (Monique) Sacco of Folsom, grandchildren, Michael & Emma Sacco; Natalie, Camille & Elizabeth Sacco, Joseph Sacco, sisters Mary Page of El Dorado Hills, Toni Haines of Tulare, Karen (Paul) Ross of Tahlequah, OK, brother Joe (Lori) McMurry of Traverse City, MI, brother-in-law Paul C. Wood of Sioux City, IA and many nieces, nephews and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents, sisters Jan McMurry and Kathy McMurry.

The video below is dedicated to the memory of Rev. Patricia C. Wood, Founder and Leader of Mountain Neighbors Helping Neighbors (MNHN). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGp8xBqDSrA