Joseph Downing Wood was born on February 22, 1867, on a farm in Washington Co., North Carolina. He was the first of nine children born to Samuel and Pattie Downing Wood. He left the family farm in 1886 to seek his fortune in Norfolk, Virginia. Here he found work as an apprentice seaman, largely on coastal ships. By the age of 21, he was a licensed seaman and at 23, a master seaman on a tugboat. By 1900 Wood had risen to the position of Yard Pilot for the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth. During World I he was commissioned as a Lt. Commander in the Navy Reserve and served as director of tugs and all floating equipment in the Fifth Naval District. After the war Wood founded his towing company, beginning with one tug and one barge, neither of which was paid for. By the time he sold his Wood Towing Corporation for $1,500,000 in 1951, the company controlled a whole fleet of tugs. Wood had sold his business rather than agree to the demands of his employees for unionization. Wood was almost 60 when he first entered the political arena and was elected to the Norfolk City Council in 1926. He was reelected to the council in 1934, 1938, and 1942. He became ex-officio mayor of Norfolk when he was elected president of the council in September, 1940. Wood served as mayor, until his retirement from politics in 1944, during an extremely busy period for a defense oriented city like Norfolk. Economy was Wood's watchword as a politician. Being a staunch conservative, he firmly believed in the "pay as you go" philosophy, which dominated Virginia politics during the period in which he was active. Joseph Downing Wood married Ada Estelle Burnell on June 2, 1896. They had one child, Margaret (Mrs. Burton DeBerry Melchor). Wood died on April 16, 1959.

Note written by James F. Walsh