David S. Wood; Caltech Professor Worked on Atom Bomb Project

David S. Wood, 77, Caltech professor emeritus of materials science, a member of the Manhattan Project that produced the atomic bomb and a Southland community activist who served on water districts in the San Gabriel Valley and as mayor of Sierra Madre. Wood, who received the Richard L. Templin Award of the American Society for Testing Materials in 1950, was noted for his research in strengthening steel. He was mayor of Sierra Madre in 1958 and helped establish the four-city San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District. He also was a mainstay of the Caltech Stock Co., an ad hoc musical performing group whose members included Lee DuBridge and Arnold Beckman. The group is scheduled to come out of retirement on April 16 to perform at Wood’s memorial at Beckman Auditorium on the Caltech campus. In Sierra Madre on March 12.