A Passion for Education

by Maureen McLellan

Wesley Wood's passion for education is as far-reaching as it is personal. The marketing entrepreneur and innovator supports not only Fairfield University, the alma mater of two of his three children, but also New York University, from which he graduated in 1965, as well as St. Dominic Elementary School and St. Dominic High School in his hometown of Oyster Bay, New York. Quite simply, education opened Wood's mind to possibilities he never contemplated growing up in Queens.

"If it hadn't been for NYU, I wouldn't be doing anything; I'd probably be in the street doing graffiti," Wood jokes. "It's give-back time."

Toward that end, Wood and his wife, Mary, have pledged $250,000 to Our Promise: The Campaign for Fairfield University in support of the Campaign's facility agenda and Annual Fund. The Woods have also continued to support the Wesley T. Wood Scholarship Fund, which they endowed in 1989. In addition, Wood has served on Fairfield's Trustee Advisory Council since 1993.

Yet Wood never envisioned himself as a patron of education. In his youth, he dreamed of becoming a political cartoonist. When he found jobs in this field lacking, he considered enrolling at NYU, only to learn he didn't qualify. But a pilot program that required him to pass an aptitude test before enrolling on a probationary basis turned out to be his ticket in. He scored well and went on to graduate with "a pretty high average."

Wesley and Mary instilled the same commitment to education in their children. Son Robert graduated from Fairfield in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in accounting and now works for a software company in North Carolina, while daughter Christina Wood-Feher earned a Fairfield nursing degree in 1994 and is employed by Yale University. The couple's oldest child Lisa is a graduate of Villanova University.

Another motivating passion in Wood's life is his business. In 1972, he founded Marketing Capital Corp., a New York City-based direct marketing and investment consulting business. The company, which now has clients in seven countries, has a stake in several mail-order outfits selling everything from leather goods to horticultural products. One of Wood's earliest successes was Candlelite Music, a company he and a partner started in 1972 with the then-novel idea of marketing old recordings on television. The partners parlayed an initial $1,700 for TV ads into hundreds of millions of dollars in sales to folks nostalgic for music of the 1950s, focusing on artists they grew up with while TV was still in its infancy. Wood realized he was on to something: Take unique or hard-to-find items requiring minimal explanation or demonstration, and market them directly to a targeted audience.

In recognition of Wood's leadership in his field, NYU named its Center for Direct Marketing for him 15 years ago. Wood is eager to share his knowledge, both through the center and other means.

"At the end of the day, education is the key in this world," he says. "It's key to finding out who you are and what you can be."