Wood, Hugh B.

Hugh Bernard Wood (1909-1995) was Professor Emeritus of the University of Oregon's College of Education. Wood was a specialist in curriculum development and served on local, state, national and international commissions for curriculum improvement. In 1955 Hugh and Helen Wood founded the American Nepal Education Foundation. Wood was also involved in the development of vocational training centers in Oregon and was director for curriculum development at the Tongue Point Job Corps Center in Astoria, Or., in the mid-1960s.

Biographical/Historical Note

American educator; executive director, American Nepal Education Foundation, 1955-

Hugh Bernard Wood (1909-1995) was a Professor Emeritus of the College of Education at the University of Oregon. His career at Oregon spanned thirty-five years, 1939 to 1974. Born in Angola, Indiana on February 18, 1909, Wood received his B.A. in Social Studies from the University of Toledo in Ohio in 1931. Later he earned his M.A. in education from the University of Colorado in 1935 and his Ed.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University in 1937. He married Helen Launa Croyle in 1928.

Wood was a specialist in curriculum development. In addition to his teaching at the University of Oregon, Dr. Wood participated on local, state, national and international commissions for curriculum improvement. Wood traveled extensively. Starting with a Fulbright assignment in India in 1953 (on break from Oregon), he then spent six years as the chief of the Education Division of U.S. Operations Mission in Nepal, and helped form its national education system from 1953-1959. Wood also did educational development work for UNESCO in Malawi and with the Westinghouse Learning Corporation in Vietnam in 1967.

A prolific writer, Wood authored numerous textbooks and hundreds of articles, as well as penning friendly "Wood-O-Grams"-- travelogues that found their way into Old Oregon and the local newspaper. While at Oregon, Wood also founded and helped edit Curriculum Bulletin for more than 40 years.

In 1955, Hugh and Helen co-founded the American Nepal Education Foundation, an organization that would occupy most of their attention after Hugh's retirement.

Wood was also involved in the development of vocational training centers in Oregon. He was the director for curriculum development at the Tongue Point Job Corps Center in Astoria, Oregon, in the mid-1960s, and was a frequent contributor to Oregon State Department of Education publications.

Hugh and Helen had two children, Wayne Bernard Wood and Pamela Lynn Wood. Wood died December 10, 1995, in Tillamook, Oregon.