Thomas Cowan Wood ’60

Thomas Cowan Wood ’60, M.D., died peacefully at home in Anchorage, Alaska, on September 25, 2021, with his loving family around him. Tom was born in Denver on October 4, 1938, to Virginia and Gerald Wood. Tom graduated in 1960 from Dartmouth, where his father had graduated in 1924. On campus he was active as the secretary of Green Key and a member of the Psychology Club, Christian Union, Dartmouth Outing Club, Army ROTC, Undergraduate Council, and Phi Kappa Psi. He attended the University of Colorado Medical School. Tom and his first wife, Kathryn Francis, were married in 1964 and had a daughter Karen, who graduated from Dartmouth in the class of 1988, and sons Bob and Paul. In 1965 Tom completed an internship in San Francisco. He and his family moved to Fort Richardson in Anchorage, where he served as captain of the Medical Corps for the 4th Missile Battalion from 1966 to 1968. Tom attended the University of Washington to complete his residency in nephrology. In 1971 he returned to Anchorage and set up private practice, focused on caring for patients with kidney failure. He helped establish many nephrologist practices in Alaska. In 2006 he was featured as Alaska’s “Father of Dialysis.” He was also named a master nephrologist by the American College of Physicians. His first marriage ended in 1991. In 1998 he married Kathleen Erlwein, and her daughter, Kara, joined his family. Tom was a devoted father and grandfather.