Richard Thomas Wood

Richard (Rich) Thomas Wood, a fourth generation San Franciscan who was very proud that many of his ancestors survived the 1906 earthquake and fire, died in Tucson, Arizona, on July 26, 2023, from complications of metastatic liver cancer. Born in San Francisco on December 28, 1947, Rich was the only child born to the marriage of Dick Wood and Marcene Lane. He was raised in Eureka Valley and attended Most Holy Redeemer School. He graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1966. After graduating from Mt. Angel College in 1970, Rich started on a 50-plus-year career in the criminal justice system. Along the way he earned a master's degree in psychology from the University of Portland and did doctoral work at the University of San Francisco. For fifteen years he worked as a probation officer in Oregon and California. For ten of those years he was a federal probation officer for the US District Court in San Francisco. In 1985, he joined Dayle Carlson in a criminal justice consulting business where he worked until his death. He worked as a mitigation investigator in more than 200 capital cases all over California and the West. Attorney Michael Bullard said the following of the decedent, "Richard was an inspiration to all of us who fought the death penalty, and to everyone he came in contact with. He never gave up a fight, and always had great ideas of how to proceed, even when it seemed impossible. I will miss him greatly. There are probably hundreds of people across the country he saved from death row and government sanctioned murder, and hundreds of grateful attorneys like me who relied upon him for his expertise and friendship." Rich was a friend of the University of Arizona School of Journalism who made frequent guest appearances in beginning reporting classes where he discussed how to conduct "eyeball to eyeball" interviews with sources. Rich was proudest of the work he did evaluating three-strikers and testifying at resentencing hearings for the Stanford University Law School Three Strikes Project. He liked to think that he was at least partially responsible for giving many men and women inmates a second chance at life. In their fifties Richard and his wife Susan began riding horses. They had many adventures in both California and Southern Arizona where they moved in 2011. Richard is survived by his wife Susan E. Swanberg, three children, six grandchildren, two stepchildren, three dogs and his horse Sox. A remembrance will be held at a later date.