Rosalie Ann Wood

“Rosie” graduated from Gaithersburg High School and matriculated at Lycoming College where she met Geoff, her future husband. She earned a BA degree and, later, an MA from Ohio University.

Rosie was a versatile educator. She began teaching high school subjects at a women’s prison and her final assignment was preparing men in a correctional facility for the GED. In between, she taught pre-school in a public school, middle school language arts and high school freshman English in an international school in Greece, and in a private elementary school in Detroit.

Rosie joined the human resources department at the start-up Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, taking on the task of relocating scores of software engineers from the US and around the world to the project and getting them and their families acclimated to their new lives in Pittsburgh.

She began her own business, Stability, Inc., which provided administrative support services to small and start-up businesses which did not have the resources, human or financial, to provide those services themselves. Eventually, she was hired by one of her clients, the Institute for Software Process Improvement (ISPI), where she became involved in their services of assisting clients. In that field, she joined a company which offered her opportunities to work with them and their clients in the US and abroad, most notably in Japan.

Rosie was an avid reader and, at one time, when she was homebound with a broken leg, Geoff came home to find her out of reading material and reading cereal boxes. She was an active member of two local book clubs. In undergraduate school, she dabbled in theater which, later, found expression in community theater in Greece and Fairfield Harbour (She was a marvelous Aunt Abby in “Arsenic and Old Lace.”) She also enjoyed her Mah Jongg group. She collected and read cookbooks and was a great cook and hostess. Starting with an aunt who was travelling in Europe post-WWII, she began what became an extensive collection of foreign dolls. During their stay in Greece, Rosie and Geoff accumulated a significant assortment of antique copperware.

Over the years, she served five Episcopal parishes as a member of the Altar Guild and/or Lay Eucharistic Minister and Lay Lector, and the Vestries. (Always a ground-breaker, in the late 1970’s, she was the first woman Senior Warden at their parish in Michigan.)

A breast cancer survivor, Rosie was very active in Relay for Life. A strong supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, she served as convenor of the Pittsburgh chapter of Integrity.

She was an active member of the Richard Dobbs Spaight Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and, as a proud member of Clan Gunn, active in the Scottish Heritage Society.

Rosie was preceded in death by her parents and elder brother, Ernest Forte “Sandy” Sandison. She is survived by her husband of 63 years, Geoffrey Wood, sons Mitchell (Gary) and Stephen (Robin), two grandchildren (Noah Scott Landen and Stephanie Rose Wood), brother Glenn Alan Sandison (Lee), sister-in-law Roselind Davis Wood, dear nieces, great-nephews and great-nieces, and cousins.

A memorial service will be held 11:00 am Thursday, August 7, 2025 at Christ Episcopal Church.

Burial will be at a later date at Forest Oak Cemetery, Gaithersburg, MD.

Cotten Funeral Home is honored to serve the family and friends of Rosalie Ann Wood.