Stephen W. Wood

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Stephen Wray Wood is a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's sixty-first House district, including constituents in Guilford county. A consultant from High Point, North Carolina, Wood is currently (2003-2004 session) serving in his eighth term in the state House.

Wood was elected as Speaker Pro Tem of the North Carolina House in 1997-1999, the second Republican elected to that post during the 20th century. He became the first Republican Chairman of the House Education Committee in 1995, leading the legislature to establish landmark Charter School legislation and cut the size of the State Department of Public Instruction bureaucracy nearly by half.

He was selected a member of the Oxford International Roundtable on Education which convened at Oxford University in 1999. In 1992, Governor Jim Martin awarded Wood the "Order of the Longleaf Pine," the highest civilian award presented by the Governor.

Wood is a US Army veteran, worked as a Veterans Service Officer for the State of North Carolina Division of Veterans Affairs, (1987-1989), served as Vice-Chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party, (1980-1984), and on the North Carolina Republican Party Executive Committee, (1984-present).

President George W. Bush appointed Wood to serve on the Selective Service Commission in 2001.

He holds several earned degrees including a BA in History/Religion from Asbury College; the MA in History from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Before election to the NC House, he taught history and education and served as Assistant Academic Dean at John Wesley College.