Edward Jenner Wood was born in Wilmington (New Hanover County), North Carolina, on July 12, 1878. Wood was a physician who served as a member of the New Hanover County Board of Health (1903-1912), a member of the State Board of Health (1912-1919), and as a consulting physician for James Walker Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, among other positions. He was a specialist on pellagra. Wood died in Wilmington on September 16, 1928.