Dr. Kenneth Dawson "Ken" Wood

Dr. Kenneth Dawson Wood, 75, a resident of Kinnelon, peacefully and unexpectedly passed at his home on September 22, 2025. He is survived by his beloved wife Nancy, his three children Kerensa, Parker, and Ethan, and his brother Steven Wood.

Ken was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Dr. Richard Wood and Urda Larson Wood. He spent his youth in Kingston where his father was a professor of botany at the University of Rhode Island.

A lifelong seeker of knowledge, Ken attended West Point before transferring to the University of New Hampshire to pursue his interest in sociology. He went on to earn a PhD in Sociology at Stanford University, with a focus on social psychology. Afterwards, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford,

working alongside the renowned sociologist Sandy Dornbusch. Ken's academic career then took him from California to northern Ontario, where he accepted a teaching and research position at Laurentian University. In 1993, he moved to Kinnelon, NJ and worked at Kessler Institute as a research scientist and national data center manager, focusing on research to improve the lives of individuals recovering from traumatic brain injuries.

His next position was at the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), part of the National Institute for Health, in Washington, DC. He served as a Project Officer, where he administered grants focused on solving the most difficult problems that really matter to people with disabilities. At NIDILRR, Ken always worked to ensure that the results of research and development reached the right people in the right circumstances, expressed in the right words, so that everyone could understand them and use the information to change lives.

He was also an entrepreneur. He founded and operated various book businesses, including The Bookstore That Never Was, a student-run bookstore in Palo Alto, and Brentwood Books, an online book business he established in 1998 as an early internet pioneer.

Ken, an Eagle Scout, loved nature and one could find him hiking in the Pyramid Mountain nature preserve on any given day. Some of his fondest memories were of backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas, Adirondacks, and the Catskills, as well as many visits to the beaches of Rhode Island with his family, like he had done as a child. He was an audiophile, engaged in politics and local issues, and loved reading history books and fiction. He was also a volunteer at the Kinnelon Library, helping to support their annual book sale.

However, it was his family that he valued the most. He loved his wife of 44 years deeply, and adored his three children, of whom he was so proud. He was also a second father to his niece and nephews, as well as his children's partners and friends, constantly supporting the people he cared about however he could.

Ken was always thinking, working, running around, moving, living. He was larger than life to those who knew him, and lived his life according to his strong moral compass. He wanted what was fair, just, and right for all.

He will be dearly missed by family, friends, and former colleagues.

A Celebration of Life will be held in October, details forthcoming. Please reach out to the family for more information at woodfamily.kinnelon@gmail.com.