The Board of Directors of the Woolworth Theater Project, joined with Governor Pataki and other elected officials, announced on August 22, 2003 that the multi-use performing arts center on Glen Street will be named the Charles R. Wood Theater in honor of long-time area philanthropist and businessman Charles R. Wood.   ‘We’re thrilled that Mr. Wood’s name will forever be seen on the side of the theater,” said Thomas L. Hoy, President of the Woolworth Theater Project’s Board of Directors.  “It’s appropriate that a man who has dedicated his life to entertaining people has this performing arts center named in his honor.” “What a wonderful honor,” said Mr. Wood.  “I am privileged to be associated with this effort to improve our region and bring world class performing arts to our hometown.”

 Mr. Wood, who passed away shortly after the Theater opened in June 2004, played a vital role in fundraising for the project, providing a $250,000 Charles R. Wood Foundation Challenge Grant in May 2001.  The grant pledged to double the amount if the project could raise $250,000 from the public during a six-month period in 2001.  The grant was matched in just three months through private and corporate donations and in August 2001, the Wood Foundation then contributed the additional $250,000 for a total pledge of $500,000.  “Mr. Wood made it clear that he was not seeking to have the theater named after him when he made his tremendous donation,“ said Andrea Lyons, Executive Director of the Theater Project.  “However, he has been so generous to this project and this region that the Board thought it a perfect fit to name the building in his honor.”

Charles R. Wood made it his life’s work to give back to the region where he earned his living.  When Chairman of the Charles R. Wood Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in Glens Falls, Mr. Wood supported countless local causes.  In October 2001, Mr. Wood donated $1.4 million to Glens Falls Hospital -- the largest charitable gift from an individual in that institution’s history -- toward the purchase of a new linear accelerator to administer radiation treatments to cancer patients.  In recognition of that contribution, hospital officials renamed the hospital’s community cancer center the C. R. Wood Cancer Center.

In 1991, Mr. Wood founded the Double "H" Hole in the Woods Ranch for critically ill children.  The Ranch welcomes children from 6 to 16 years of age at no cost to them or their families. Today, the Double "H" Hole in the Woods Ranch has gained wide recognition for hosting hundreds of children, mainly with cancer and other blood-related disorders.

The Wood Foundation has recently made large contributions to the Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls and The Richards Library in Warrensburg.  Mr. Wood’s Mother Goose nursery theme attraction, Storytown (now known as The Great Escape -- Splashwater Kingdom), was the nation’s first theme park which was sold in 1996.  As founding father of an amusement park empire headquartered in Lake George, NY, Mr. Wood is known as the “Father of Theme Parks.”  He developed several motels and restaurants, all in the Lake George area.  Mr. Wood served as President of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.  He was inducted into the IAAPA Hall of Fame in 1992.

Mr. Wood served on the Board of Directors of The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY; the International Board of the Naples Philharmonic Center of the Arts in Naples, FL; Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, NY; and the Board of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC).  He was an avid collector of Frederic Remington’s sculptures and many other famous works of art.