Jim Wood, a former Oceanside mayor, City Council member and police officer, died at his home Saturday with his wife and family members at his side.
Wood, 78, was first elected to the Oceanside City Council in 2002 and then elected mayor in 2004. He remained the mayor until ill health forced him to step down in December 2017 after winning another four-year term by a wide margin in 2016.
Before becoming an elected official, Wood had a 31-year career in the Oceanside Police Department. He was known as a respected investigator in some of the department’s most demanding assignments, including homicide, narcotics, and crimes against children and seniors, and collaborated with the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, and Naval Criminal Investigative Services.
As a council member and mayor, he was a strong supporter of the city’s police and fire departments, as well as the rights of mobile home park residents and senior citizens. Under Wood’s leadership, Oceanside’s crime rates fell to its lowest levels in 30 years, city officials said.
“Jim Wood was a dedicated public servant in every sense of the word,” said Mayor Esther C. Sanchez, in a written announcement Monday.
“He left a lasting legacy of prioritizing public safety, fighting crime, and protecting our seniors. Jim had a great way of making everyone feel like an old friend,” Sanchez said.
“His quick wit and humor broke down barriers, and people were drawn to him from the moment they met,” she said. “He was a wonderful person, phenomenal Mayor, and a great friend. We are grateful for every year he dedicated this city. He will be deeply missed.”
In 2021, the City Council voted to honor the former mayor by renaming the Rancho Del Oro Park as the Jim Wood Park at Rancho Del Oro. The 16-acre facility on Avenida Empressa has three soccer fields and five tennis courts. Wood attended the dedication with his wife, Pam, and their family. The couple were married 48 years.
With 13 years as Oceanside’s top elected official, Wood is among the longest-serving mayors in the city’s 138-year history.
He experienced a series of strokes that limited his mobility and speech, making it difficult to continue his duties in the months before his resignation.
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Councilmember Peter Weiss, formerly the Oceanside city manager, was one of two people suggested by Wood as candidates to be appointed as his successor. The other was City Clerk Zack Beck, but Beck withdrew his name from consideration, saying he would prefer to continue as city clerk. Beck is now city clerk of Escondido.
The City Council appointed Weiss to fill the remainder of Wood’s term as mayor. When it expired, Weiss chose to run for a seat on the council instead of mayor and now is completing his second full term.
“He was dedicated to the city of Oceanside,” Weiss said Monday of Wood. “He was able to reach out, and he was friendly to everybody.”
Weiss recalled attending a reception with Wood at Joe’s Crab Shack, where Wood went around to every table and introduced himself to each person as the city’s mayor.
“He was an outgoing personality,” Weiss said. “And he was the mayor, that was his identity.”
In an interview at his home in 2018, Wood said he moved to Oceanside with his family when he was 5 years old. For a while they lived in a trailer park near the beach, where his parents hosted dances every Friday night.
“I loved it,” Wood said. Visitors would camp in tents on the beach. That was before the city built its harbor, and there was only a wide beach with sand dunes south of Camp Pendleton.
Wood was born Jan. 31, 1948, in Manchester, N.H, as the only son of Dwight “Doc” and Harriet Wood, according to city records. His father was a Navy corpsman who brought the family to Oceanside in 1955.
He attended North Terrace Elementary School, then Jefferson Junior High School, and graduated from Oceanside High School and MiraCosta College.
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No services or funeral arrangements have been announced.
