Spencer Shepard Wood – Rear Admiral, United States Navy

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SPENCER S. WOOD, REAR ADMIRAL, 79

Retired Officer, Commander of the Oklahoma in War, Dies

NEW YORK, New York, July 31, 1940 – Rear Admiral Spencer Shepard Wood, retired, died here early yesterday in Memorial Hospital.  In eight more days he would have been 79 years old.

Rear Admiral Wood was born in Brooklyn August 7, 1861.  On June 28, 1878, he was appointed a Cadet Midshipman, completed the four-year course of instruction at the Naval Academy in June 1882, and was ordered to the USS Vandalia. He was graduated in June 1884.

While Flag Secretary to Rear Admiral J. S. Walker in 1894 he was sent by President Cleveland to investigate conditions in the Hawaiian Islands before the recognition of the Hawaiian Republic by the United States.

After completing the Naval War College course late in 1914 Admiral Wood was a member of the General Board until January 1917.  he was commanding officer of the Oklahoma from January 1917 until January 1918.

Admiral Wood hoisted his flag on the Chicago as commander of Division 1, Pacific Fleet, in April 1919.  While in command of that division of cruisers he assisted in the protection of Americans during a revolution in the Honduras.

In 1895 Admiral Wood marries Margaretta Fryer of Albany, New York, who died in February 1938.  There survive two daughters, Mrs. Joseph C. Harsch of Washington, D.C., and Mrs. J. H. N. Potter of Mendham, New Jersey, a brother, John W. Wood, and a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Agvault.

MRS. SPENCER S. WOOD
Wife of Rear Admiral Buried in Arlington Cemetery

WASHINGTON, February 8, 1938 – Mrs. Margaretta Fryer Wood, wife of Rear Admiral Spencer Shepard Wood, USN, retired, who died on Sunday after a brief illness, was buried today in the National Cemetery at Arlington.  Services were held in Christ Episcopal Church, Georgetown.

Born in 1872 in Albany, New York, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Livingston Fryer, Mrs. Wood had been a resident of Washington since her husband was appointed aide to Admiral Dewey.  She was a descendant of Dr. Samuel Fuller, who came over on the Mayflower, and from Robert Livingston, who came from Scotland and settled in New York State in the seventeenth century.

Survivors besides her husband are two daughters, Mrs. Margaret Wood Potter and Mrs. Anne Wood Harsch, wife of Joseph C. Harsch, Washington Correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor; a sister, Mrs. Ella Fryer Clark, and a brother, Alexander Livingston Fryer.

WOOD, SPENCER S

  • REAR ADM US NAVY RETD
  • DATE OF DEATH: 08/02/1940
  • BURIED AT: SECTION EAST  SITE 1039-B
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

WOOD, MARGARETIA FRYER W/O SPENCER S

  • DATE OF DEATH: 02/06/1938
  • BURIED AT: SECTION E.  SITE 1039-B
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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