Chris Proffitt/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis - If you never met Tom Wood, you certainly know the name if you live in central Indiana. Friends say the auto dealer, who died early Friday, was a salesman at his core. But Wood was much more to many people.
He was the name on a long line of car dealerships. Tom Wood was public yet an intensely private person. He started in the car business selling Edsels before finally opening his first car dealership in 1967, and the rest is history. Now it's 14 auto franchises from Indiana to Minnesota with 550 employees.
"Completely unassuming. You'd never think he's the successful businessman that he is," said Larry Heid, vice president and CFO, Tom Wood Ford.
Married for 51 years, Wood was a pilot with a passion for World War Two aircraft. But for all of his success, there was a foundation of generosity that wasn't paraded before the public to enhance a reputation.
While Wood was amazingly successful in business, he also was a philanthropist who, along with his wife, donated millions of dollars to over a dozen charities.
Despite battling cancer, he continued on running his businesses and sharing his good fortune.
"For the last three years he would come in. We'd visit and talk about things on his mind and it was business as usual really, until the middle of December," said Heid.
Tom Wood died on Thursday, one day before his 78th birthday. He was man who never forgot his humble beginning, who improved the lives of so many people and who friends say will be sorely missed.
