Orrin G. Wood

Orrin G. Wood Jr., age 86 of Concord, Mass., died Sunday May 10, 2009 at The Wayside Hospice in Wayland following a long illness. He was the beloved husband of Joan (Perrin) Wood. They had four children: Dr. Patricia Thomson Wood of Oakland, Ca., Susan Perrin Wood of Hingham, Ma., Edward Webb Wood of Iowa City, Iowa, and Orrin Grout Wood III of Weston, Ma. Orrin and Joan had four grandchildren: Julia Vermeulen, Ben Vermeulen, Kaitlin Wood and Perrin Salewood.

Orrin was born in Brookline on November 22, 1922, and was the son of the late Orrin G. and Cecile (Thomson) Wood. He was raised in Chestnut Hill and attended the Dexter School and the Noble and Greenough School, where he won Varsity letters in football, hockey and crew and was the President of the student body. He attended Philips Academy in Andover for a post-graduate year. He was the class of 1945 at Harvard College where he majored in engineering with a minor in history. He was also a member of the Freshman and JV hockey and crew teams, and was Captain of the JV Crew. He went to Harvard Business School, graduating in 1947 and earned his CPA in 1958.

Orrin interrupted his studies at Harvard to enlist in the US Navy when WWII broke out. He was a Lieutenant (J.G.) and served on two destroyers in the Pacific during the war. His first ship, the USS Bennett, was involved in the invasion at Iwo Jima and received the US Navy Unit Commendation for shooting down 15 planes in action off of Okinawa before being severely damaged by a kamikaze.
He married in 1948 and he and Joan moved to Toledo, Ohio where he worked for the Toledo Scale Co. Their four children were born there. They moved to Concord in 1955 where he worked for the Simplex Wire and Cable Co., and then S.S. Pierce & Company from 1958 to 1967 where he was the Chief Financial Officer. He then became the operating Treasurer of the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1968 to 1988.

In retirement, he formed Orrin Wood and Associates Co. in Concord, an employment and counseling agency for middle and senior managers. He authored two books: The Executive Job Search and Your Hidden Assets; the latter was used as the primary text for the Harvard Business School Job Search Program, which he founded.

His community activities included being President of the Board of Trustees at William Lawrence Camp in New Hampshire as well as President of the Board of Trustees of the Concord-Carlisle Community Chest. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Concord Country Club and the Concord Town Finance Committee. He was President of The Treasurer’s Club of Boston and President of The Harvard Business School Association of Boston. He was also a member of The Financial Executives Club, and the Buzzards Yacht Club.

Orrin was an accomplished athlete and skied, skated, and played tennis. Most of all, he loved to sail his boat in the summer at Wings Neck on Cape Cod. He also enjoyed the Boston Symphony and going to the theater. He was an avid reader and was particularly interested in history.

MEMORIAL SERVICE
Friday - June 5, 2009 - 1:00 p.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church
81 Elm Street
Concord, MA 01742

INTERMENT
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Concord, Mass.
~Private~

GIFTS IN HIS NAME MAY BE MADE TO:
Orrin G. Wood 1905 Scholarship Fund
c/o The Noble & Greenough School
10 Campus Drive
Dedham, MA 02026

Funeral Arrangments under the care of Glenn D. Burlamachi
CONCORD FUNERAL HOME
74 Belknap St.
Concord, MA 01742
978/369-3388
www.concordfuneral.com

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