Stephen W. Wood
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Stephen Wray Wood served as a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's sixty-first House district, including constituents in Guilford county. Wood served eight terms in the State House from l984-2005. Before election to the NC House he served as Professor of History and Education and Assistant Academic Dean at John Wesley College, High Point, North Carolina. He has served as a minister in Quaker (Friends) and United Methodist Churches for 35 years.
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 convened at Oxford University in 1999. In 1992, Governor Jim Martin presented Wood the Order of the Longleaf Pine," the highest civilian award given by the state of North Carolina.
Wood is a US Army veteran, (1970-1971), served as a Veterans Service Officer for the State of North Carolina Division of Veterans Affairs, (1987-1989), as Vice-Chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party, (1980-1984), and on the North Carolina Republican Party Executive Committee, (1984-present). He was the Republican candidate for Mayor of High Point in 2005.
President George W. Bush appointed Wood to serve on the Selective Service Commission in 2001.
Earned degrees include a BA in History/Religion from Asbury College; the MA in History from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; the M.Div. degree from Houston Graduate School of Theology (Houston, Texas); and the D.Min from Luther Rice University (Atlanta, Georgia). He is a member of the academic Phi Alpha Theta International Historical Fraternity.
Dr. Wood is a singer, songwriter, recording artist, public speaker and performer. His songs include, "I'm On My Way to Heaven," recorded by the Dixie Melody Boys gospel music group. Recording credits include "Love and Devotion", with the Barney Pierce Family; "Travelin Troubadour"; "Titusoverture" (QCA Records). Performing credits include roles as an 'extra' in the George Clooney movie, LEATHERHEADS (May 2007); the role of BURL SANDERS in the gospel music comedy, "SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN", produced by the Little Theatre of Winston Salem, North Carolina, September 21-30, 2007; and as an 'extra' in RED DIRT RISING (November 2007).
Academic research and writing include book reviews and articles in Quaker Life Magazine, the Voice of Evangelical Methodism, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and biographical entries in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.
