Eugene Chrisman Wood

Eugene Chrisman Wood, 89, born June 21, 1925, passed away on Oct. 1, 2014. Gene served proudly for the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater during WWII. Gene moved his family from West Virginia to Denver in 1956 where he went to work for Martin Marietta. Gene enjoyed a very successful career at Martin Marietta spanning 28 years. In addition to working the Titan program for many years, he was a program manager on the SkyLab Program, director of Checkout Control Monitoring Systems (CCMS), director of Command and Information Systems (I&CS) and ultimately the vice president and general manager of International Laser Systems, a subsidiary of Martin Marietta, before retiring in 1982. He lived in Gunnison for many years. Gene loved the Colorado outdoors and his automobiles — it was rumored that he owned as many as 13 cars at time (and this did not include the boats and motorcycles in his collection). He is survived by sons James (Nancy) of Athens, Ala.; Mark (Lynn), daughters Rebecca, and Kate (Doug), and brother Don of Beverly, W.Va., and by five grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his beautiful wife of 60 years, Jean, and his son Chris, to a tragic accident in 1975 at the young age of 20. Burial was held at Fort Logan National Cemetery on Oct. 7 with full military honors. Contributions may be made in Gene’s memory to The Alzheimer’s Association.