Quick Facts
Biography
Stephen Wray Wood served as a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's sixty-first House district, including constituents in Guilford county. Wood served eight terms in the State House from 1984–2005. Before election to the NC House he served as Professor of History and Education and Assistant Academic Dean at John Wesley College, High Point, North Carolina.
He has served as a minister in Quaker (Friends) and United Methodist Churches for over 40 years. In 2013, Wood became Co-Founder of Global Missions Group, an interdenominational non-profit based in North Carolina, with a mission "to build churches that otherwise would not be built." The first project was a church built in the village of Santa Isabel, Brazil, in August 2015. www.facebook.com/globalmissionsgroup
During his 16-year tenure in the North Carolina State House, Wood was elected Speaker Pro Tem, 1997–1999, the second Republican elected to that post during the 20th century. He became the first Republican Chairman of the House Education Committee in 1995, leading the legislature to establish landmark Charter School legislation and cut the size of the State Department of Public Instruction bureaucracy nearly by half. As part of the Japan Learning Group, he traveled with the Public School Forum in l995 to Japan, consulting with educational and political leaders in that country regarding educational reform.
He was selected a member of the Oxford International Roundtable on Education convened at Oxford University in 1999. Governor Jim Martin presented Wood the Order of the Longleaf Pine, the highest civilian award given by the state of North Carolina.
Wood is a US Army veteran, (1970–1971). He served as a Veterans Service Officer for the State of North Carolina Division of Veterans Affairs, (1987–1989). He was elected as Vice-Chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party, (1980–1984), and served on the North Carolina Republican Party Executive Committee.
President George W. Bush appointed Wood to serve on the Selective Service Commission in 2001, where he continues to serve.
Earned degrees include a BA in History/Religion, Asbury University (Wilmore, Kentucky); Th.B in Bible/Theology, Laurel University, (formerly John Wesley College) (High Point, NC); MA in History, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; M.Div., Houston Graduate School of Theology (Houston, Texas); and D.Min from Luther Rice University (Atlanta, Georgia). Postgraduate studies include Princeton Theological Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Earlham School of Religion. He is a member of the academic Phi Alpha Theta International Historical Fraternity.
Wood is a singer, songwriter, recording artist, public speaker and performer. His songs include, "I'm On My Way to Heaven," recorded by the Grammy-nominated Dixie Melody Boys gospel music group. Recording credits include "Love and Devotion", with the Barney Pierce Family; "Travelin Troubadour"; "Titusoverture" (QCA Records). His song, "Sunday Brought the Cure," won the East Coast Songwriters Contest in the Christian music category (June 2012), and is the title song on his 4th album, (2013). He is the Executive Producer and contributor of 8 songs to the CD, "Songs for Santa Isabel" (2015,Tobytowne Records), a compilation album of 22 songs in support of building the Bill Sessoms Memorial Nazarene Church in Santa Isabel, Brazil, in August 2015. www.gospelgigs.com/stevewood
Acting/theater/performing experience includes an 'extra' in the George Clooney movie, Leatherheads (May 2007); the role of Burl Sanders in the gospel music comedy, Smoke on the Mountain, produced by the Little Theatre of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, (September 2007); an 'extra' in stock car racing film, Red Dirt Rising (November 2007); role of Ralph Levering in This Tender Place, Cherry Orchard Theater, Cana, VA, (August 2008); "Tom Dooley," Wilkes Playmakers (2009); "Moonshine and Thunder: The Junior Johnson Story," Wilkes Playmakers, (2009); extra in "The Fifth Quarter, (2010); "Dearly Beloved", (Wiley), 2013, Twin City Stage, WS, NC.
Research and writing include book reviews and articles in "Quaker Life", "Piedmont Christian News," Voice of Evangelical Methodism, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and biographical entries in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.