Dave Wood Shares his Passion for Angel Flights with a Special Performance by the Birmingham Boys Choir
President Bruce Rogers with Rotarian Dave Wood and Carolyn Ratliff
This week the Rotary Club welcomed Rotarian Dave Wood, Chairman of Wood Fruitticher Grocery Company, Inc. Wood shared stories from his years volunteering with the Veterans Airlift Command, a national network of volunteer aircraft owners and pilots who provide free, private air transportation to our nation’s combat injured veterans for medical or other compassionate purposes. He highlighted the resilience, humor, and healing of service members and the unwavering love of their families. His talk honored the sacrifices of heroes like Medal of Honor recipients Woody Williams and Kyle Carpenter, as well as many others who inspired him through their strength and spirit.
Rotarians also enjoyed a special performance by the Birmingham Boys Choir, one of the largest boys choir organizations in North America under the direction of Music Director Ken Berg.
Bio for Dave Wood
Dave Wood served as a pilot and 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army and has been a private pilot since 1968. He has completed 112 missions with Veterans Airlift Command since 2011 and he has also served as an Angel Flight pilot since 2000, transporting critically ill patients to life-changing medical treatments. Wood is Chairman of the Board of the Wood Fruitticher Grocery Company, Inc., a wholesale grocery supplier founded by his grandfather in 1913. Dave and his brother John assumed leadership of the company in the wake of their father Bill’s untimely death in 1980, guiding it to become the southeast’s largest independent foodservice distributor before retiring and handing the business to the family’s fourth generation. Wood was a founding director of the United Way Food Bank and has served in leadership positions on the boards of The Boy Scouts of America Birmingham Area Council and the Birmingham Airport Authority. He earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of Alabama and a graduate degree in International Economics from American University in Rome, Italy. Wood is a graduate of Leadership Birmingham and Leadership Alabama and was inducted into the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham Business Hall of Fame in 2022.