Obituaries

Miriam B. WoodTeacher, Author

Miriam B. Wood, 89, a Montgomery County public schools English teacher, a columnist for a Seventh-day Adventist Church newspaper and an author of nearly 20 books, died March 16 at Sunrise Assisted Living of Silver Spring. She had Alzheimer's disease.

Mrs. Wood taught in Montgomery County from 1956 to 1972, last at White Oak Middle School in Silver Spring. She spent the next eight years as assistant to the president of Home Study International, an Adventist school in Silver Spring now called Griggs University and International Academy.

She also was vice director of its Christian leadership seminars during those years.

Mrs. Wood wrote columns from the mid-1950s to mid-1990s for the church's flagship newspaper, which became known as the Adventist Review. Her husband was its editor-in-chief for many years.

The last incarnation of her column was called "Dear Miriam" and featured advice on cultural and church matters.

Miriam Brown Wood was born in Atlanta. She was 7 when her mother died and was raised mostly in Lodi, Calif., by her paternal grandparents.

She was a 1938 English and history graduate of Pacific Union College in California.

She did graduate work in teaching at the University of Maryland in the 1960s.

She was registrar of Takoma Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist high school, from 1952 to 1956. She was a longtime Adelphi resident before moving to Silver Spring in 2000.

Her books included a 1977 biography of Rep. Jerry L. Pettis (R-Calif.), a family friend who died in a plane crash in 1975, and "Those Happy Golden Years: the Laughter, Tears and Adventures That Were Part of the Halcyon Years of Adventist Evangelism" (1980).

Survivors include her husband of 69 years, Kenneth H. Wood of Manor Care in Potomac; two daughters, Janet Stoehr of Silver Spring and Carole Xander of Gainesville, Fla.; a half-brother; seven grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.