Rock Wood
Rockford Lions Club member Rock Wood was recently elected to become the district governor for Lions of West Michigan District 11C-1. The district governor is the highest-ranking Lions district position, and provides policy and program oversight and administrative support for clubs in 42 towns and cities throughout West Michigan.
Wood is a 12-year member of the Rockford Lions, and is the first district governor in the 50-plus-year history of the Rockford Lions Club. He is a Melvin Jones Fellowship Award recipient, the highest form of recognition for exceptional service to the district. Wood also was recently awarded the Lions International President’s Award for outstanding global service for outstanding humanitarian service coordinating, among other projects, a local tree-planting campaign in which over 12,000 trees were planted at more than 50 locations by 35 Lions clubs, working with youth groups throughout West Michigan.
Wood noted that the Lions International is the largest service organization in the world, dedicated to serving the community, with an emphasis on serving the needs of the visually and hearing impaired. In addition, the Rockford Lions Club (established in 1954) is one of the largest and most active Lions clubs in West Michigan, with more than 70 members who raise funds to support more than 15 groups/programs, such as Rockford Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, D.A.R.E., Leader Dogs for the Blind, Michigan Eye Bank, North Kent Community Services, Shop With a Cop, Sight Seer Radio, and many others.
Not only does Wood serve the local community through the Rockford Lions Club, he currently serves as a member of Optimist International (Greenville club), the Courtland Township Planning Commission, and the President Gerald R. Ford Boy Scout Council Board of Directors, which oversees the administration and activities of the Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs of West Michigan. Wood has also organized or volunteered for over 200 state-licensed charity events and serves many other charitable and nonprofit organizations.
Wood’s professional accomplishments as an attorney for the law firm of Dickinson Wright in Grand Rapids include being listed among the Best Lawyers in America and by Michigan Super Lawyers for multiple years. This past year, he was honored as the 2012 Best Lawyers, Lawyer of the Year: Grand Rapids Litigation-Banking and Finance.
When asked what his main goal for governing the Lions district forward was, Wood responded, “To increase both membership and service to our communities and to involve youth in community service.”
Comments by our Readers