Some of George Wood’s research helped bring outer space a little closer to home.
As a photogrammetric engineer, Wood assisted in developing technology that NASA used to take pictures during space missions, his family said.
“That’s how they mapped the moon, using photogrammetry – which means precision measurement through photography,” said his wife, Aileen Toner Wood, of Marietta. “It was all really something.”
George Wood began his career of precision measurement after high school, when he enlisted in the Army Corps of Engineers, where he worked in the survey and mapping division. His time in the Corps included designing and building structures, including one piece of TV history, his son said.
“We’re sitting there as a family, watching the last episode of M.A.S.H. and they show the building where the peace armistice was signed, and out of nowhere he says, ‘Ah, it is good to see that building again,’ and we’re all looking at him, waiting for an explanation,” said Jeff Wood, of that night in 1983. “He points the building on the screen and says, ‘I designed that,’ and none of us knew until that moment.”
George Arthur Wood, of Marietta, died April 13, from complications of a brain hemorrhage. He was 83. A memorial service is scheduled for 11:30 a.m., June 14, at Georgia National Cemetery. His ashes will be entombed with full military honors. West Cobb Funeral Home and Crematory was in charge of the cremation.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Wood graduated from the former Loyola University, now Loyola Marymount University, in Los Angeles. He then went on to a specialized masters’ program at the International Training Center for Aerial Survey in Delft, Netherlands. It was after he graduated that he began working on projects that would eventually be used by NASA.
“He was a revolutionary contributor to the profession,” said Ron Ondrejka, who studied with Wood in the Netherlands in 1959. “He was, of course, a very precise man, who had a passion for his work, which was aerospace mapping and remote sensing.”
The work Wood and his colleagues did was more than a job, they felt it was part of their civic duty, Jeff Wood said.
“You have to remember, this was all new technology at the time,” he said of his father’s work. “And I know he enjoyed being part of the creation of something new, something that would be of benefit to his country.”
Wood retired in the late ‘90s and not long thereafter, he and his wife followed their son and daughter to Marietta, from New Hampshire. Since then he has enjoyed spending time with his family, and supporting his grandchildren in their activities, Wood said of his father.
In addition to his wife and son, Wood is survived by his daughter, Lauren Wood Viscardi of Marietta; and three grandchildren.
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