Duane Arthur Wood

Duane Arthur Wood (Woody) was born in Berwyn Illinois, the youngest of four children of Arthur H. and Kathryn E. Wood, on September 5, 1941. He passed away suddenly on April 7 2020, from complications of pancreatic cancer.

Woody grew up in Illinois, upstate New York, Memphis, Tennessee (where he spent his formative years, as he called them, in the Elvis era) and Champagne, Illinois. He graduated from high school in Champagne in 1959.

After a year at University of Illinois, he joined the US Army and served three years in the 5th Infantry Division at Fort Carson in Colorado. He was awarded the Good Conduct and Army Commendation medals. He often said he was honored to have served. He wore his veterans cap proudly and used it to start a conversation with other vets.

He was hired as a Junior Compositor (draftsman) in February 1964 in the Enroute Charting Department of Jeppesen & Company (later Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc.) an aviation charting company headquartered in Denver, Co. In the early ‘70s he was promoted to Compiler and then later Sr. Compiler and was in charge of managing the series of US Enroute Charts, applying revision information to current charts and developing new charts as needed in the series. In 1980 he was again promoted to the role of Flight Information Coordinator, managing production schedules and serving as a liaison between the Marketing/Customer Service teams and Production Teams at Jeppesen. Because of his extensive knowledge of products and processes, in 1984 he accepted an invitation to become a part of the Marketing Team in the role of Air Carrier Customer Service Representative. In this role he served some of the world's biggest airline customers managing their chart services and advising them on technical charting and airspace matters.

Woody was the recipient of a number of awards while employed at Jeppesen. These include the President's ""Above and Beyond Award"" in November of 1988 for his significant contribution to a new and important Jeppesen product line called Q Service and the Times Mirror Innovation Award (Times Mirror was Jeppesen's parent company) for Charting improvements involving Approach chart redesign and changes to enroute and area charts to improve usability. He retired from Jeppesen in 1999 after a successful and fulfilling 35 year career.

Woody married his first wife, Linda, in 1963 and they had two sons, Darin and Jason. When the boys were small, they moved to Evergreen where Woody was instrumental in starting and organizing the youth soccer club. He was involved with the administration of the league and served for many years on the Board. He also couched winning teams, held clinics for other couches, and became a qualified referee.

After retirement from Jeppesen, Woody joined his second wife, Carole, in her start-up bag manufacturing company, MKI Bags. He managed the production side as well as interfaced with corporate customers on design of custom products. Customer service has always been paramount. Together they traveled throughout the US setting up shop at various fairs, festivals, rodeos and trade shows. His customer interactions have created many long-lasting customer relationships. He was just a lot of fun!

Woody was always involved in anything athletic, playing soccer, boating and water-skiing and outdoor activities. He and his partner Carole enjoyed Country-Western dancing, climbing Colorado fourteeners, and snow-skied every Colorado ski area.

Woody is survived by his wife of 34 years, Carole Ligrani Wood; by his son, Darin Duane Wood of Friendswood Texas; his granddaughter, Christi Wood; step-sons Jason (Jake) Goodall of Arvada and Jeff Goodall of Westminster; step-grandchildren Bowen Goodall, Isabella Goodall, Michelle Goodall, Bailey Goodall, Avery Goodall, Shelby Goodall; brothers William D. Wood of Texas and David R. Wood of Florida. He is predeceased by his son Jason Jennings Wood, his sister Diane Wood, and his parents, Arthur and Kathryn Wood.

Due to restrictions surrounding the Coronavirus Pandemic, a Celebration of Life has been postponed until a later date this summer. You can be notified when it is organized by requesting notification via email (baglady@mkibags.com) . In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Veterans of Foreign Wars, go to Donate here and click on the memorial and honor giving section. Woody was a loyal supporter.