Patricia "Pat" K. Wood was born July 4, 1941, in Dubois, Pa. She graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School in 1959 and went on to attend Case Western University, where she met and married Alan S. Hill. The couple resided in Quantico, Va., where their sons Adam and Brad were born in 1962 and 1965.

Pat began her career as a legislative assistant to Congressman Bill Harsha of Ohio, and in that role helped work on the Clean Water Act of 1974, where she met Gordon E. Wood. She went on to complete her bachelor's degree and a master's degree at George Washington University. In the late 1970s, she went to work for the EPA, and in the 1980s moved into the private sector with the American Paper Institute and later Georgia-Pacific, retiring in 2003.

Pat married Gordon E. Wood in 1997, and the two relocated to Ocean View. After Sept. 11, 2001, she became a volunteer EMT, completing firefighter training to do so. She later opened Bethany Beach Yoga, teaching classes on the boardwalk and at Bear Trap.

Pat and Gordon shared a love of travel, visiting 120 countries together over the years. Among her favorite destinations were India, China, England, Peru, Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands.

Pat approached life with an open heart and a try-anything spirit – always ready for a new dish, a new place or a new adventure, and always certain the glass was half full. She was a sailor, a rower on the Potomac River and White's Creek, a devoted gardener whose gardens bloomed every season, a yoga instructor, and a lifelong reader of newspapers and books. She loved the beach, good coffee, good wine, the theater, the symphony, politics and – fittingly – celebrating her birthday every Fourth of July.

She delighted in her grandchildren, Sam and Sydney, marking each of their 12th birthdays with a trip of a lifetime – Sam to Africa and Sydney to India – and treasured sleepovers with them at COSI and the Smithsonian. She was equally happy simply entertaining friends and family at the homes she and Gordon shared in Annandale, Va.; Takoma Park, Md.; and Ocean View and Bethany Beach, or spending time with her extended Wood family, walking her dog, or sitting in the sand with the water close by.

Pat passed away Monday, June 15, 2026, following a difficult battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was preceded in death by her husband, Gordon E. Wood, May 15, 2025.

She is survived by her sons, Adam (Jill) and Brad (Theresa); her sister, BJ; her brother, Eli (Ruth); her stepsons, Richard Kenneth Wood II (Betsy), Robert Kimmel Wood (Claire), Gordon Evans Wood Jr. (Lauren) and David Neal Wood (Erin); 15 grandchildren, including Sam and Sydney; and three great-grandchildren.

A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m., Friday, Sept. 18, at Mariner's Bethel United Methodist Church Cemetery, 81 Central Ave., Ocean View.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in Pat's name to Care360 Hospice, 3455 Mill Run Drive, Ste. 900, Hilliard, OH 43026.