Franklin "Frank" H. Wood

Franklin H. “Frank” Wood, 65, of Bloomington IL, passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 after a brief, yet courageous, battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his loving family. He was born July 15, 1958 in Verdun, France to Frank and Norma (Hayden) Wood. After spending his early childhood in Alaska, he spent the rest of his formative years in Rancho Cordova, California. Frank grew up with four siblings: Steve, Kathy, Patty & Scott. He graduated from Cordova Senior High School and American River College. On October 19, 1991, he married his soulmate, Patricia “Patti” (Vilberg). They raised two children together, Logan and Crimson “Simmy” Wood.

Frank acquired a love of motorcycles when racing dirt bikes as a teenager. He then went on to sell them at dealerships in the Sacramento area: RC Suzuki and PCP Motorsports. From there, he was hired by Suzuki as the District Sales Manager in northern California, then southern California, where he sold an average of 6500 motorcycles annually. Within two years, he earned the position of Sales Development and Marketing Manager in the Suzuki corporate office, where he coordinated and maintained nationwide finance programs.

He was also a car enthusiast and car racing fan, but did acquire a fondness for riverboats after having met Patti aboard the River City Queen on the American River! Frank moved to Atlanta GA to be with her and was the General Manager of Atlanta’s largest Honda chain, Rodi Cycle.

After marrying, they moved to Bloomington IL where Frank served over 30 years as co-partner and CFO for Manpower throughout the Central Illinois area. He took on a multitude of local duties in this capacity, but also sat on the board for the national Association of Manpower Franchise Owners as Secretary and as Director of the AMFO Central Region.

With all of his business accomplishments and career advancements, though, Frank found his greatest pride in his children, Logan and Simmy. He was both an advocate and mentor with all of their endeavors, as well as their #1 fan and supporter at all of their events. One of his favorite activities was driving the boat for them and their friends while they would tube at Lake Wildwood (with his loyal yellow lab beside him). And given that both of his kids graduated from the University of Iowa, he became a huge Hawkeye fan, attending numerous games as a family. He was also very supportive of his wife’s volunteer endeavors by always lending a helping hand. Frank enjoyed playing golf and wearing Hawaiian shirts!

He was the epitome of a family man, who planned several of their family vacations and cooked countless family meals. And he was always willing to go along with all of those family photos for their Christmas/New Years’ cards! As a family, they enjoyed attending Calvary United Methodist Church and Frank himself joined a mission trip to Jamaica to help build a dental clinic. He not only had a spiritual soul, but was also patriotic and philanthropic with high morals and a positive attitude.

Frank never knew a stranger. He was always interested in the lives of those he met and could carry on a conversation with anyone. He had a wonderful sense of humor with a very quick wit. He was especially appreciative of anyone who was genuine and sincere, down-to-earth, compassionate and willing to put others first...which were all actually attributes that could describe him.

He had such a diverse taste in music: from the Beach Boys to country to hard rock. And when he had control of the remote, he enjoyed quite an array of television entertainment from programs as comical as Andy Griffith to provocative as UFO shows to intense as Breaking Bad to trashy as Below Deck-and, of course, Barrett Jackson car auctions. But no matter where his attention was, he never hesitated to turn to his family and say “Love you guys."

Frank was preceded in death by his parents, Franklin & Norma and brother, Walter “Scott”, his father-in-law, Jack Vilberg, his brother-n-law, Glenn Vilberg and his “Big Yellow Sweetie”, Holly his lab. He is survived by his wife, Patti, as well as his son Logan (Marissa) Wood and his daughter Crimson “Simmy” Wood. Also surviving are his brother Steven (Betsy) Wood, sister Kathy (Rick) Spencer and sister Patty (Stephen) Schuck. Close extended family members who are also mourning his death include in-laws Pam (Doug) Orear, Peggy Vilberg (David) Smith and Beverly Vilberg, along with a host of nieces and nephews, aunts, uncle and several cousins.

In order to accommodate family schedules, a Celebration of Life has been deferred until Saturday, September 23rd at Calvary United Methodist Church (1700 North Towanda Avenue – Normal, IL 61761) Visitation will take place at 2:00pm with a memorial service at 3:00pm, followed by a Celebration of Life reception.

In the meantime, memorial donations may be made to the American Association for Cancer Research (www.aacr.org), American Heart Association (www.heart.org) &/or Calvary United Methodist Church (www.connectwithcalvary.org).

East Lawn Funeral Home has been in charge of final arrangements: www.eastlawnmemorial.com