[1] A Massachusetts native, Wood attended Harvard in the early 1950s, playing varsity hockey for 3 years and serving as team captain in his senior season.
[2] After graduating Wood served in the military before returning to college hockey as a head coach for Princeton in 1959.
Wood's first season with the Tigers was a mild success as the team compiled a winning season for the first time in four years but afterwards the club lost ground and routinely finished near the bottom of the newly created ECAC Hockey standings.
After leaving Princeton Wood returned to Massachusetts and joined the Boston-area real estate firm of Hunneman & Company.
In 1969 he was elected as president and CEO of National Realty Investors and later became president of Moors & Cabot Properties, Inc.[3] While living in Massachusetts Wood became a season ticket holder for the Boston Bruins and would regularly take his sons to games.