Wood, Thomas Olys

1992, August 17

Date of Birth: 1923, December 21

Thomas Wood was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 21, 1923. He attended Corpus Christi parish school, Loyola High School, St. Charles College and St. Mary’s Seminary; later he achieved a Master of Arts degree from Notre Dame University in History and he received a second Master’s degree from Seattle University. Before graduate studies he had been ordained to the priesthood on May 22, 1948. Father Wood became a Sulpician in 1952 after a year of novitiate in the Sulpician Solitude at St. Mary’s Seminary on Paca Street in Baltimore.

Assigned to Seattle, Father Wood taught at St, Edward’s Seminary and at St. Thomas Seminary, where he also served as Treasurer. His main academic interest was History, particularly American Catholic Church History. He authored, a text: A History of the Catholic Church in the United States.

In 1969 Father Wood returned to Baltimore to serve at St. Mary’s Seminary in Roland Park. He remained there until 1972. After laicization, Thomas Wood married Susan Linz in 1976. He had meanwhile become a counsellor in the Maryland State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He died of cancer on August 17, 1992 and was buried from St. Joseph’s Church in Timonium. The homily was delivered by Reverend Joseph Bonadio, S.S.