- Phyllis Anderson Wood, resident of Grants Pass, passed away on July 22, 2011, in Grants Pass, Oregon. She was 87. Phyllis was born October 24, 1923, in Palo Alto, California, and was raised in San Francisco. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Public Speaking from the University of California at Berkeley, and took a further year of graduate work in Speech and Drama at Stanford University. She received a Master's degree with a specialty in the Teaching of Reading at San Francisco State University, and earned the California Language Development Specialist Certificate, which added the specialty of Teaching English-as-a-Second Language. Altogether, Phyllis taught for thirty years in California public schools, including a two-room mountain high school, an inner-city junior high, a continuation school, adult school, and several large rural and suburban high schools. Over the years, she also supervised and mentored numerous teaching interns from San Francisco State University and Stanford University. In the 1970s, Phyllis began writing novels. Her students' daily lives and problems were reflected in her stories, and their reactions to her books strongly influenced the course of her writing. She wrote a total of 13 young adult novels and over the last decade, she had put back in print seven of these novels for a new generation of young readers. Her website is www.phyllisandersonwood.com. In 1947, she married Roger Holmes Wood. They lived for sixty years on the San Francisco Peninsula before relocating to Grants Pass, Oregon, in 2007 to be near their daughter and her family. They were members of the First Presbyterian Church of Burlingame for over 50 years and affiliated with Bethany Presbyterian Church in Grants Pass. She is preceded in death by her brother, Carl Robert Anderson, in 1936; her son, Stephen Holmes Wood, in 2007; and her husband, Roger, in 2008. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, David Wood and Sharon DeMills, of San Rafael; her daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Nelson Maler, of Grants Pass; and her grandchildren, Sarah and Caleb Maler, of Grants Pass. She was laid to rest next to her son and husband in Grants Pass. Condolences can be left on her guestbook at www.since1928hull.com.
Published in San Jose Mercury News/San Mateo County Times on August 28, 2011.
(from Findagrave memorial)
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