Every Christmas morning for years, Richard D. Wood Jr. walked Wawa's aisles with one of his children, greeting associates by name and handing out free-coffee coupons store by store. Wood, who spent parts of five decades leading the company his family built, first as its General Counsel and later as its President, CEO and Chairman, died peacefully at his home on July 10, 2026, according to his obituary from Cavanagh Family Funeral Homes. He was 88.

He was born March 4, 1938, in Philadelphia, the son of Margaretta and Richard D. Wood Sr., into a family already tied to the business: his great-grandfather George Wood had opened the Wawa Dairy in 1902, and in 1964 George's grandson Grahame Wood opened the first Wawa Food Market. Wood attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, earned a B.S. from the University of Virginia, where he belonged to the St. Elmo Hall fraternity, and an LLB from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He served in the United States Marine Corps in the late 1950s. In September 1962, fraternity brothers introduced him to Jeanette "Jean" Wood in New York City; they married in May 1964 and remained married for 61 years, until her death in 2025.

After a brief stint practicing law, Wood joined Wawa in 1970 as the company's first General Counsel, recruited by his father's cousin, Grahame Wood. He became President in 1977, CEO in 1980, and added the title of Chairman in 1982, a post he held for 22 more years. Under his direction, Wawa moved into round-the-clock operation and the fuel business, growing from a regional dairy-and-store operation to more than 900 stores and over 36,000 associates across six states by the time he stepped down as CEO, according to WFMZ and the company's own account of his tenure.

Wood ran the company on a people-first model. He said it was his job to "create an environment where each of us believes that we can make a difference," a philosophy that led him to create Wawa's Employee Stock Ownership Plan in 1992, which has since grown associate ownership to 38 percent of the company, and to establish an Internal Care Team in 2008 to support associates through hardship and celebration alike. He toured stores regularly and worked different shifts to hear firsthand what associates and customers were experiencing, and he liked to talk about "two cents" and "goose sense," his shorthand for common sense and a sense of humor, as qualities he wanted every Wawa associate and family member to carry.

Wood retired as CEO in 2004 but remained Chairman of the Board, and in 2020, at the 50-year mark of his Wawa career, was named Chairman Emeritus; his brother George Wood succeeded him as chairman. Wawa's tribute to Wood credited him with shaping the company down to the everyday experience of a customer: "Think of everything you know and love about your Wawa. The food. The convenience. The sense of community. They're inspired by Dick Wood."

His philanthropy centered on the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where his family's giving established the Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment and the Richard D. Wood Jr. and Jeanette A. Wood Endowed Chair in Pediatric Diagnostic Medicine. He personally pushed Wawa's Coffee and Care Cart through CHOP's halls to serve patients and families, and he was a longtime supporter of Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida, helping open the gardens to wider public access. He also served on the boards of Riddle Memorial Hospital, Philadelphia National Bank, PQ Corporation, Tyler Arboretum and the National Association of Convenience Stores, and away from work he was an avid golfer, belonging to Gulph Mills Golf Club, Pine Valley Golf Club and the Mountain Lake Club in Florida, serving as president of two of the three.

Wood is survived by his sister, Elise duPont, and his brother, George Wood, as well as his two children, Lisa Wright and Richard Wood, and five grandchildren: Alec Wright, Charlie Wright, Davis Wood, Lucy Wood and George Wood. He was predeceased by his wife, Jean, in 2025 and another brother, Bill Wood, in 2001. His longtime assistant, Barbara Ennis, said some of their best conversations "had nothing to do with Wawa at all. They were about his family, what everyone was doing, and how proud he was of all of them. No matter what was going on, talking about his family always brought a smile to his face."

What Wood built endures in specific, countable ways: the ownership stake now held by tens of thousands of Wawa associates because of the plan he created in 1992, the fetal diagnosis center at CHOP that carries his family's name, the coffee cart still rolling through hospital hallways, and a company culture built on knowing employees by name. Customers across six states grew up on a version of Wawa that he spent thirty-four years building store by store.