Thomas Clay Wood

Thomas Clay Wood was born August 1, 1919 in Nokesville, Virginia to Nettie Gertrude (Herring) Wood and Henry Clay Wood. He worked on his family’s farm on Vint Hill Road, where he developed his love of farming and passed that love on to future generations. He attended a small, one-room schoolhouse, which he walked to each day and later graduated from Nokesville High, which is the present day Elementary school. At a young age, he remembers driving his mother into Washington DC to sell the family’s produce and meat at a farmers’ market. After graduating from Strayer College in Washington DC, he returned to his family farm and in 1941, married Winifred (Winnie) Elizabeth Swank and moved to her family’s farm where his beautiful bride was born and raised. It was there he started his farming career with ten cows and would later purchase the farm from his father-in-law. Over the next seventy years, “Clay” Wood would devote himself to this church, family, community and state. An active member of the Nokesville United Methodist Church, Clay held many leadership positions, including a faithful delegate to the United Methodist Conference even up into his senior years. He was twenty-two years of age when he joined the Nokesville Ruritan Club where he was an active member for 64 years, and the District Governor in 1952. In 2001, Clay received an award for perfect attendance of sixty years. He was involved in numerous community activities, including Nokesville Day celebrations, and the annual Brunswick stew fundraiser. In 1952 he became a member of the Prince William School Board, a position he held for twenty-four years. Knowing that Prince William County’s population would continue to grow, he saw the need for a new high school in Nokesville, and with determination and hard work, petitioned for the funds which were subsequently approved in 1964 to build the Brentsville District High School on Aden Road in Nokesville. Clay was also instrumental in getting special education introduced into the school system. Clay was elected to the Prince William Board of Supervisors, a position he held for four years, deciding not to run for a second term in order to spend more time with his family. During all of these years of public service, Clay continued his farming operation and became a well-respected homebuilder in the county. Clay also served nineteen years on the Prince William County Soil and Water Conservation Board. He was appointed by four Virginia Governors to serve on the Commonwealth Council on Aging, and was a personal friend of Governor Godwin and Virginia State Senator Chuck Colgan. But ensuring a promising future for the county’s young people was always his main concern, which is why in his later years, he negotiated to sell to the county his boyhood home farm, which is now the site of the county’s newest High School. In appreciation of Clay’s dedication and service to the county’s educational system, the Board of Supervisors voted to name T. Clay Wood Elementary School in his honor, a dedication service held in 2011. Clay died on May 1, 2015 at his home farm, in the same house where Clay and Winnie began, and lived out their life together. Clay is survived by three children, Linda Hingorani, Diane Elizabeth Wood and Lanson Clay and wife Galina Wood. He is also survived by six grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and one great, great grandson. The family will receive friends on Wednesday, May 6, 2015 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM at Pierce Funeral Home, 9609 Center Street, Manassas, VA. Funeral Services will be held on Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 12:00 Noon at Nokesville United Methodist Church, 12550 Aden Road, Nokesville, VA. Interment will follow at Valley View Cemetery, Nokesville, VA. Condolences may be sent to: www.piercefh.com

Thomas Clay Wood

August 1, 1919 - May 1, 2015