Career
He is also the namesake of the Walmart FLW Tour for sportfishing. Wood began his outdoors career as a fishing guide on numerous lakes and rivers in Arkansas, while maintaining a construction business and a cattle farm. Wood began to build lake boats in 1968 behind a service station.
The business moved to an old nightclub.
By 1970, Ranger Boats sold 1,200 units. The boats are considered to be the prototypes of what are now called bass boats.
The facility was destroyed by fire in 1971, but Wood salvaged orders from his desk in the building and restarted. That same year, Wood qualified for the first-ever Bassmaster Classic.
The next year, Wood signed a sponsorship deal with the tournament, making it the Classic"s official boat from then until 2000.
Wood sold Ranger Boats in 1987, but remained active in the industry. In 1996, the tournament organizer Operation Bass renamed itself with Wood"s initials, a name it retains to this day. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission named its Crowley"s Ridge Nature Center for Wood, who served a seven-year term on the commission after an appointment by Governor Mike Huckabee from 1998 to 2005.
The couple has four daughters.
