Wood Walter Phares

Wood Walter Phares, or Woody as he chose to be called later in life, decided to shuffle off this mortal coil and go “Off to see the Wizard” (Which was one of his favorite expressions when-ever he would leave us) on November 8th 2020.
Born in the month of December in Cincinnati OH, he left this world just shy of his 77th birthday. Tallahassee FL was his journey’s end, the sun and ocean always called him back. Always doing things on his own terms, this final journey was no exception.
Wood graduated from Rollins College and from there entered the US Army. He served in Berlin at the Wall, where he, as he would like to say, was “watching the spooks.” While Wood was not very sentimentally attached to objects, and a fairly law-abiding citizen, pieces of the original Wall were found as his family sorted through his things.
Wood worked as a proud member of the Battle Creek Police Department and later in life as a 5th grade Teacher. The time spent in between and after was filled with SHOOTING, sailboats, duck hunting, moving across and around the country, SHOOT-ING, building a home in Ely with his daughter (which he made very clear was for his grandchildren), playing bridge and freecell, SHOOTING, flying model planes, SHOOTING, falling in love with several special women (Nancy, Robin, Claudia, Martha, Wendy, Patricia and Judy) there was also ping pong, pickle-ball and did we mention SHOOTING.
He was a voracious learner, deeply intellectual and filled his mind with wonderful scientific concepts and philosophical arguments. Always a book open on the table or a favorite read lying next to his bed; Constantly inspiring us to ask why. His eclectic loves filled his home with Dinosaur bones and Civil war antiquities, rare jade artwork and moving paintings, but his bachelor foundation left his home mostly spartan and deeply practical, to the chagrin of his visiting grandkids.
He was a loving and generous father to Victoria and son-in-law David. Always ready with an inappropriate joke when the grandkids were not listening. Wood had such kind eyes and a soft spoken voice (which he didn’t really find until just a few years ago). He is missed beyond belief and has left our family with a hole that we do not know how to ever fill. He was the peanut butter safety taster, the enforcer of the no phones zone, vanquisher of pirates and spitball champion of us all.
He is survived by his daughter, Victoria Phares Hall, son-in-law David Hall, three amazing Grandchildren, Wyck, Embeth and Eloise, his sister, M. Cecil Phares and his half-brother Tim Phares. He would be outraged at the length of this obituary (such a waste of money), so we had better “Bring it in”, as he was want to say.
Wood never found much need for a funeral, but as he would also like to say, “It won’t matter because I’ll be dead.” So to blend his wishes and ours, we will be having him interned at the Fort Custer National Cemetery in Augusta Michigan on April 23rd at 1:00 pm. We can only hope that he will be looking down at us, eating a bowl of taco salad with Doritos that were of course pre-crushed just for him.