Robert Wood Obituary

WILLIMANTIC

Long-time Pomfret resident Robert Patrick Wood passed away at his home, surrounded by family, on December 22, 2024. He was eighty-three years old. Bob, or Woody, was known for his dry humor, high standards, and love of country and rural life. He was born in Willimantic, Connecticut on St. Patrick's Day in 1941, during a blizzard (as he liked to say). He was raised on a small farm in Windham Center and attended St. Joseph's School, Windham Center Elementary, and Windham High School, graduating in 1959. His athletic ability was well-known throughout his life on Willimantic Little League, high school, college, and city league teams. He was recruited by Dartmouth College for football when he was in high school. A Willimantic Chronicle article referred to him as one of the best young baseball players in the city. He was known for his home runs that soared over the fence of the Recreation Park baseball field in Willimantic. They led to an invitation to try out for the New York Yankees baseball team. He credited his strength and ability to working on farms when he was young. In later years, he was a founding member of the Windham Elders softball team and played for ten years. He played golf until months before he died.

Bob graduated from Willimantic State College, now known as Eastern Connecticut State University, in 1967 and obtained a master's in education in 1981. College was interrupted by service in the army, where he was a Movements Control Specialist as part of the US Army's Transportation Corps at Fort McPherson, Atlanta, Georgia. He was an expert marksman and known for his powerful swing on the Fort McPherson baseball team. He hit a home run to secure an upset win against a strong Fort Jackson team. Shortly before the Vietnam conflict, he was given an early honorable discharge to return to college.

Bob worked for thirty years to help the elderly, handicapped, and underprivileged in Northeastern Connecticut. He began with the Department of State Welfare in Norwich, Connecticut in 1968. In 1980, he became a case manager at the Mansfield Training School in Mansfield, Connecticut. He oversaw the de-institutionalization of developmentally disabled residents in preparation for the closing of the school as required by a federal court order. He provided education, training, and housing within the community for former residents. In 1983, he became the coordinator of the Dempsey Regional Center in Putnam, Connecticut for compliance with the court order to close Mansfield Training School. He continued to provide social services to developmentally disabled children and adults and became the Assistant Director of Case Management at the Dempsey Center in 1988.

Bob's strong sense of community included service in the Pomfret Lions Club, the Pomfret Library, and the Pomfret Fire Department. His most notable contribution was as Vice President of Pomfret's South Cemetery, where he worked tirelessly to restore landscaping, driveways, fencing, and numerous centuries-old gravestones. On summer days, he could be seen with Cemetery President Paul Nelson straightening stones that had fallen over or building forms to repair broken stones. He restored the wrought iron gates at the entrance to the cemetery and was working to add stone hitching posts between the graveyards when he passed away.

History, Irish lore, tradition, and preservation drove Bob's passion for antiquity and the monuments of those who went before us. He visited graveyards wherever he traveled, including that of his favorite poet, William Yeats, in Ireland. Yeats' epitaph reflected Bob's view on the transience of life:

Cast a cold Eye

On Life, on Death.

Horsemen pass by.

Bob's burial will be next to his son Patrick amongst the gravestones that he preserved. They lie near the home where he died. Hillside is an 1840 Victorian, which housed the first Catholic chapel in Pomfret. Bob worked for decades to rebuild and maintain its structures and fields. He built barns so he and his family could raise horses, Belted Galloway beef cows, chickens, sheep, pigs, and guinea hens. It was his legacy to bring an old farm back to life so that it would become an oasis for his family and enhance the rural character of Pomfret for generations to come.

Bob was predeceased by his parents, Genevieve McShea and Robert Homer Wood of Windham Center, and by his youngest son, Patrick David Wood. He leaves behind his wife of forty-seven years, Marie Lisette Rimer; his eldest son, Colin Patrick Wood; Colin's wife, Jennifer; their children, Addison and Raegan; Patrick's twin sister, Elizabeth Antoinette Wood; her partner, Victoria; his brother, John Francis Wood; John's son, John Mathew Wood; his brother, James Michael Wood; James' wife, Allison, and James' children, Andrew Craig Wood, Timothy James Wood, and Jessica Lynn Malovic.

A funeral will be held Saturday, April 12, 2025, 11:00 a.m., Clark Chapel, Pomfret School with a burial at South Cemetery and a reception to follow. Donations in Bob's memory may be made to the Patrick Wood Prize, established by Bob and Lisette after Patrick's death in 2006. The prize is awarded to meritorious day students attending Pomfret School, where Patrick was valedictorian in 2001. Donations can be made online at: https://www.patrickwoodprize.org/donate. Checks can be made payable to: The Patrick Wood Fund and sent to: Pomfret School, Advancement Office, 398 Pomfret Street, Pomfret, Connecticut 06258.

Robert Patrick Wood