MEDIA ADVISORY
TO: News Directors, Education Reporters
FROM: UAF University Relations
SUBJECT: William Ransom Wood Memorial and Reception
DATE: Saturday, March 3, at 4 p.m.
LOCATION: Patty Center, UAF Campus
A memorial service for the fourth president of the University of Alaska Dr. William R. Wood will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday, March 3, 2001 on the Fairbanks campus in the Patty Center. A reception will take place in the Wood Center following the service, from 5: 30 to 7 p.m. Shuttle buses will be running regularly from surrounding parking lots to the Patty Center for the 4 p.m. service, and from Patty to Wood Center following the service.
Guests are expected from all around the state to pay tribute to the man who set an example of civic responsibility with service to the Fairbanks community and the state during his presidency and since retirement from the university in 1973.
His 13 years as president of the Farthest North College saw dramatic growth and expansion of the statewide university system and the Fairbanks campus. Wood is credited with bringing the University of Alaska into the mainstream of American higher education to an extent that it had never participated before. He saw nearly a 400 percent increase in enrollment during his tenure. At the time he became president on July 1, 1960, the university consisted of a single campus with 921 students. Three times more students enrolled in the university during Wood's 13-year presidency than the 38 years before he took office. When he retired, the university had become a statewide institution covering three regions. The university's physical plant, valued at $10.5 million in 1960, was worth $102 million by 1972.
Wood died at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital Sunday, Feb. 25 at the age of 94. His wife and life partner for 56 years, Dorothy Jane, died August 2000.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the William R. and Dorothy Jane Wood Talent Grant at the UA Foundation, P.O. Box 755080, Fairbanks, 99775-5080. The endowment created by the Woods benefits students in the creative arts, performing arts and athletic achievements.
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CONTACT: UAF Public Information Officer Carla Browning, at 907-474-7778 or email: carla.browning@uaf.edu.
CJB/02-28-01/01-053ma