Lowell D. Wood
Lowell D. Wood served as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in the Pacific Area Presidency. At the time of his call as a General Authority in June 1992, he was director for temporal affairs and a gospel doctrine teacher in Manila, Philippines. He died on March 7, 1997, in Apia, Samoa, while serving as President of the Pacific Area of the Church. Although they were living in Sydney, Australia, the Pacific Area headquarters, he and his wife were on assignment to create the Pago Pago Samoa Mapusaga Stake.
Wood was born January 23, 1933, in Cardston, Alberta, Canada to William Dale and Donna Woolf Wood. His grandfather, Edward J. Wood, was a former Cardston Alberta Temple president.
He earned degrees in agricultural economics from Brigham Young University (bachelor's), Montana State University at Bozeman (master's), and UC Berkeley (doctorate). He joined BYU as a professor in 1969 and served in many capacities there. He left BYU in 1975 to join the staff of the Church’s Welfare Service Department. He had served as regional manager for the Presiding Bishop's Office in New Zealand, a position with Church Welfare Services in Salt Lake City, co-founder and first director of the Ezra Taft Benson Food and Agricultural Institute at BYU.
He married Lorna Cox Wood on July 8, 1955, in the St. George Utah Temple. They were the parents of five children. Due to career and Church service opportunities, the couple lived in Auckland, New Zealand; Hong Kong; Manila, Philippines; and Sydney, Australia; and traveled to many more countries.
Together they served as leaders of the South Africa Johannesburg Mission from 1979 to 1982. She passed away on March 24, 2025, in Taylorsville, Utah.
