Robert S. Wood received a bachelor's degree in history from Stanford University, and a master's and a PhD in political science from Harvard. He was the holder of the Chester W. Nimitz Chair of National Security at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, where he also served as Dean of the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group, and Dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies, a focal point of strategic and campaign thought in the naval services and a major research group in the national security field

Elder Wood also served as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the president of the Boston Massachusetts Temple, and on the Council on Foreign Relations Religious Advisory Committee. 

He and his wife are the parents of four daughters and the grandparents of thirteen grandchildren.