Wood received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Oregon and taught anthropology at the University of Missouri for nearly four decades. Among his many publications are Prologue to Lewis and Clark (2002), Twilight of the Upper Missouri River Fur Trade (2008), and A White-Bearded Plainsman: The Memoirs of Archaeologist W. Raymond Wood (2011). He co-authored Fort Tecumseh and Fort Pierre Chouteau, Journal and Letter Books 1830–1850 (2017) and Fort Union and Fort William: Letter Book and Journal, 1833–1835 (2020), both by SDHS Press. He passed away on October 2, 2020.