MR. WOOD HOME
JMU Economics
College of Business

Macro: 200
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Micro: 201
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Econometrics: 385
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PUBLISHER:
William C. Wood
MSC 0204,
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
PHONE: (540) 568-3243

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William C. Wood

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About Mr. Wood, or "Dr. Wood" (if you insist)

I was born in Montgomery, Alabama and lived in Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina and Alabama growing up. I went to undergraduate school at Auburn University, majoring in journalism, and worked for The Associated Press after graduation.

Switching careers from journalism to economics, I attended graduate school at the University of Virginia and received my Ph.D. there in 1980.

I have since served on the faculties of Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia (for a 5-year return visit) and Bridgewater College, where I was chair of the department of economics and business.

I have been at James Madison University since 1989 on the economics faculty, serving as director of the Center for Economic Education. My wife and I live in the small town of Bridgewater, Virginia, in a converted 1906 schoolhouse. We have two grown sons and are therefore quasi-empty-nesters. I like bicycling in the area around Bridgewater, photography and music. I'm a member of the Beaver Creek Church of the Brethren, where I have served as youth director, deacon and Sunday School teacher.

Other things to have a look at:

 

 What do you call a Ph.D. -- when you're being polite, that is? The JMU custom is to use "Dr." But here is a well-tested rule I hope people will keep in mind as time goes by and customs change:

The more prestigious a university, the less frequently its Ph.D.-holders insist on being called "Dr."

Insistence on the "Dr." honorific is generally associated with Deep South universities where doctoral percentages were once much lower than they are now.

Partly out of my ambitions for JMU's more prestigious future, therefore, I'd rather be called "Mr." than "Dr." None of this is related to any lack of pride in my own doctoral degree. I received a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1980. I poured years of my life into it and I am proud to have earned that degree. At that very institution, I should note, Ph.D.-holders by custom are not generally referred to as "Dr."

One more thing, about the non-doctoral degree holders on the faculty here at JMU: They are some of the best faculty members we have and they all have exceptional qualifications to be teachers and researchers here. Sometimes they are in a field where a master's degree is considered the terminal degree; in other cases they have outstanding experience or other qualifications. To my way of thinking, there is no room for snobbery about degrees, here or anywhere.

For more on this, see Jay Nordlinger's classic column. There he says in part, "The bulk of the Ph.D.’s I know balk at being called anything but 'Mr.' (or maybe 'Professor,' in the case of academics), believing that 'Dr.' has come to mean Marcus Welby, and that’s about it. As for those who feel slighted when they are 'Dr.'-less, all we can say is, 'Ph.D., heal thyself.'"

(Historical note: Marcus Welby was the name of a doctor in an old television series.)
 
   
 
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