Richard J. Wood

Richard J. Wood "initially became well known to Japan Society and its constituents through his work at the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission in Washington, D.C., where he served as Chair from 1994 to 2002. After receiving his PhD in philosophy from Yale University, his own deep involvement with Japan began in 1966, when he joined the faculty of Earlham College. He first lived in Japan in 1968 as a Fulbright Fellow at Waseda University, undertaking an intensive study of Japanese language and philosophy. In 1970 he became Director of Earlham's programs in Japan and in 1973-1974, with a fellowship from The Japan Foundation, spent a year in Tokyo studying Japanese ethics and aesthetics. From 1980 to 1985, Mr. Wood was Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, Whittier College, returning to Earlham College in 1985 to serve as its President until 1996. During his presidential tenure and under his leadership, Earlham conducted its first successful capital campaign in over fifteen years, raising more than $20 million.

"In 1996, Mr. Wood became Dean of Yale University Divinity School, one of America's leading theological schools. In the course of his four-year term, he filled key faculty vacancies, rebuilt and substantially increased student enrollment, and raised $15 million towards renovating the Divinity School campus. From 2001 until the beginning of 2006, he served as President of the United Board for Christian Higher Education, a New York-based nonprofit that functions as a combined operating and grant-making foundation. Mr. Wood was founding Chair of the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation and currently serves on its Board; he also serves on the Board of Trustees of Southern Methodist University and on the Board of Trustees of the Japanese-American National Museum."