[1] On the basis of winning the opera prize he was given a Ditson Award from Columbia University, on which he lived and wrote music for a year.
He was the staff composer at the Chekov Theatre Studio in Manhattan from 1939–1941 where he wrote a wide variety of scores for many productions directed by Michael Chekhov.
He wrote charts for many dance bands, the most famous of which was his arrangement of "Chiquita Banana" that he did for Xavier Cugat.
[3] From 1943–46, Wood joined the special services as a member of the U.S. Army, serving in the South Pacific during World War II.
Fond of telling stories, Wood would later amuse friends with tales of his experiences in the army, especially those about the oddity of meeting many celebrities in remote and dangerous places like Okinawa and other "Pacific hotspots".
It brought to the campus such distinguished composers as Roger Sessions, Wallingford Riegger, Ernst Krenek, Leon Kirchner, and, in 1963, Igor Stravinsky, as well as many outstanding performers and commentators.
[2] Wood was a guest composer at the Villa Montalvo in 1957 and was awarded a Huntington Hartford fellowship in 1960, and was a fellow eight times at the MacDowell Colony.
Arguably, his most important piece was a large ballet-cantata commissioned by the Draco Foundation and written to a scenario by Evelyn Eaton entitled The Progression.