Emeritus General Authority Seventy Reflects on Two Decades at the U.S. Naval War College

This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.

By Trent Toone, Church News

Editor’s note: This is the second of two articles that focus on Latter-day Saints serving at Naval Station Newport and the U.S Naval War College in Rhode Island.

• Part 1: The story of a weekly interfaith devotional that is blessing many lives in many ways.
• Part 2: An interview with emeritus General Authority Seventy Elder Robert S. Wood, who spent more than 20 years of his career at the U.S. Naval War College (below).

Less than a decade before he was called as a General Authority Seventy, Elder Robert S. Wood was a professor at the U.S. Naval War College when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

As a specialist in areas of foreign and national security policy, he met regularly with delegations from other countries to discuss various foreign policy subjects.

One night after going for a walk, Elder Wood ran into the head of the Russian delegation, who invited him to sit down and visit. As they talked, the man asked Elder Wood if he had ever heard of an American prophet by the name of Joseph Smith?

Elder Wood confirmed that he had. “Why do you ask?”

The man said his wife met two young representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while visiting Finland and was given a copy of the book, “A Marvelous Work and a Wonder,” by the late Elder LeGrand Richards, who served in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. His wife read the book as she traveled back to Moscow.

Elder Wood said he had another book for the man to read.

“I retrieved a copy of the Book of Mormon in Russian and presented it to him,” said Elder Wood, whose daughter had placed a box of Russian copies in his car trunk. “He ended up in New Zealand where he, his wife and children joined the Church.”

Seated comfortably in his home on February 2, the 87-year-old emeritus General Authority Seventy shared that personal experience and others with the Church News as he reflected on his career at the U.S. Naval War College and service with Church Military Relations.

Meet Elder Robert S. Wood

Born on Christmas Day 1936 and raised in Idaho Falls, Elder Wood served in the Church’s French Mission from 1957-1959.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and earned his master’s degree and doctorate in political science from Harvard University.

While at Stanford, he met Dixie Lee Jones, whom he married on March 27, 1961, in the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple. The couple has four children.

Early in his career, Elder Wood was a teaching fellow at Harvard University; an assistant professor at Bentley College; a professor in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia; and a Fulbright visiting professor of Political Economy and European Community Law, University of Tilburg and the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.

More than 20 years of Elder Wood’s career were spent at the U.S. Naval War College:

• 1977-79 — Visiting professor of strategy
• 1980-83 — Chairman, Department of Strategy and Policy
• 1983-1999 — Dean, Center for Naval Warfare Studies
• 1983-85, 1988 — Director, Strategic Studies Group, Chief of Naval Operations
• 1984-1999 — Chester W. Nimitz Chair of National Security and Foreign Affairs

Elder Wood became widely known for his work in the areas of foreign and national security policy, military strategy, international politics and international law and organization, regularly advising the White House, U.S. Congress and the Department of Defense.

“It’s actually mystifying why I got to be first the chairman of the strategy department at the War College, and then the dean of the Naval Center for Naval Warfare Studies, given my military record, which is pretty sparse,” Elder Wood said.

Elder Wood, who represented the United States in meetings with Soviet and British officials during the Cold War, was sustained as a General Authority Seventy in the April 1999 general conference and served until 2009, when he was granted emeritus status. During those years, he served as president of the Church’s Utah North and Brazil North Areas.

Elder Wood served as an Area Seventy, regional representative, stake president, bishop, high councilor and president of the Boston Massachusetts Temple. He also represented the Church in many interfaith organizations and events, including the Council on Foreign Relations Religious Advisory Committee, and served as a member of the Church’s Military Relations Advisory Committee from 2001-2022.

Invitation to U.S. Naval War College

Elder Wood was a professor at the University of Virginia in the 1970s when he was first invited to give a lecture at the U.S. Naval War College at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island.

Following the lecture, he was asked to extend his stay another day to participate in a seminar on the topic of the Vietnam War, which was still underway.

In the seminar, Elder Wood asked the students which branches of military service they represented and learned that all were present — Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — as well as the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Instead of going ahead as planned, Elder Wood went around the room and invited the students to share their personal experiences.

“It would be presumptuous for me to talk to you about Vietnam. I don’t want to hear about the war — I want to hear about your war,” he said. “It was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had. I was almost in tears by the time they finished.”

After he returned to Virginia, Elder Wood received a call from Rear Admiral Edward F. Welch Jr., then president of the Naval War College. He told Elder Wood, “You were quite a hit up here. Would you consider spending a year as a visiting professor?”

Elder Wood thought that sounded “fun,” but he had already spent a year teaching in the Netherlands and didn’t think the University of Virginia would grant him another year.

Not only did the university allow it, but Elder Wood spent two years as a visiting professor at the Naval War College, then one back at Virginia before he was invited to permanently join the Naval War College faculty, which he described as a “class environment” with a “distinguished faculty.”

“I know not only the war colleges in this country but throughout the world, and the Naval War College is really No. 1,” he said. “It has really become a major beacon of research.”

Congratulated for Not Cursing

Elder Wood was a “good influence” at the Naval War College, his wife Dixie Wood said.

He was sitting in his office one day when a Marine officer entered and said, “I understand you that you don’t cuss.”

“He went on and talked about the fact that I didn’t cuss, and in the process, he was cussing every other word,” Elder Wood said. “He was really cussing up a storm, but it was funny as he was congratulating me for not ‘blankety-blank’ cussing.”

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‘You People Are Christians’

Elder Wood was periodically invited by Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, then head of the Naval Chaplaincy School, to help teach to the chaplains about the Latter-day Saints.

In the process, Elder Wood began to notice one chaplain who always stood at the back of the room and glared at him with his arms folded across his chest. “That’s never a good sign,” Elder Wood thought.

Finally, one day the unfriendly chaplain approached him and thrust his finger into his chest. “You people are not Christians,” the man said, referring to Church members.

Elder Wood responded by handing the chaplain a copy of the Book of Mormon.

“You go and read the Book of Mormon and then come back and tell me we aren’t Christians,” he said.

The chaplain left mumbling and grumbling, and Elder Wood didn’t expect to hear from him again. But he did.

Close to a year later, the chaplain called and said, “Dr. Wood, I read the Book of Mormon. You people are Christians.”

Called to Church Leadership

In January 1999, Elder Wood was about to leave home for a meeting when the telephone rang. He almost ignored it, then picked up. The voice on the other line was President Gordon B. Hinckley.

“That’s when I was called as a General Authority,” he said.

A short time later Elder Wood met with the Naval War College President Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski to inform him he was leaving to accept a new Church assignment.

The vice admiral jumped from his chair, removed a sword from the wall, waved it over Elder Wood’s head and said, “You are going to do what?”

Elder Wood was momentarily startled, then Cebrowski, a devout Catholic who attended Mass daily, relaxed and laughed.

“He told me, I wouldn’t have respected you had you not, in fact, done exactly what you did,” Elder Wood said.

Church Military Relations Advisory Committee

Elder Wood was grateful to serve for two decades on the Church’s Military Advisory Committee, whose members he described as “first rate.”

One of the committee’s duties is to advise the First Presidency on military matters. Elder Wood said the First Presidency was always “responsive” to each request, such as patiently working with the military to allow Latter-day Saint servicemen to wear temple garments.

“I must say I have been really impressed with the leadership of this Church,” he said.

Deep Appreciation for America

Elder Wood concluded by bearing his testimony of the gospel and expressed his deep love and appreciation for America.

“I have always been a flag-waving patriot,” he said, noting that whenever people of other countries are forced to leave their homes for whatever reason, they always seek to come to the United States where there is hope and opportunity.

“There’s no place in the world quite like the United States, which has led me to the conviction that it’s the only place where the Restoration could have taken place, flourished and indeed established itself.”

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