Robert S. Wood
Robert S. Wood is a former General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in the Second Quorum of the Seventy from 1999 to 2009. At the time of his release he was called as president of the Boston Massachusetts Temple and served in that capacity until 2012. He served as a missionary in the French Mission from 1957 to 1959, and has served as bishop, stake president, Regional Representative, and Area Seventy. He also represented the Church in many interfaith organizations and events, including the Council on Foreign Relations Religious Advisory Committee, and served as a member of the Church’s Military Relations Advisory Committee from 2001-2022.
Wood received his bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford University and his master’s and PhD in political science from Harvard University.
During his career of more than 20 years at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, he held the Chester W. Nimitz Chair of National Security and Foreign Affairs. He also served as the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group and Dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies, a major research group in the national security field.
He became widely known for his work in the areas of foreign and national security policy, military strategy, international politics and international law and organization, and regularly advised the White House, U.S. Congress and the Department of Defense.
Wood was a teaching fellow at Harvard University, an assistant professor at Bentley College, and a professor in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia. He was a Fulbright visiting professor of Political Economy and European Community Law at the University of Tilburg, and the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. He was also a visiting professor and lecturer at numerous universities and institutions. He frequently lectured at the National Defense University, the NATO Defense College, the Federal Executive Institute, and all of the US Military Senior Service Schools.
He is the author of The Complete Christian (2007, Deseret Book) and editor and contributor to several volumes, including Strategic Transformation and Naval Power in the 21st Century (with Pelham G. Boyer, 1998, Naval War College Press).
He was born on December 25, 1936, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He was selected as a delegate from Idaho to the international YMCA Centennial Conference. He and his wife, Dixie, are the parents of four daughters.
