Mr Wood worked at a number of schools in the area, including California Gully, Bendigo East, Eaglehawk, Maple Street, Quarry Hill and Raywood.

His teaching career also took him around the state, seeing him educate thousands of young students.

He worked everywhere from a school in Melbourne, that had a large number of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, to Goschen near Swan Hill, in a school that boasted a student body of about 20 children.

The latter was where he began his teaching career in 1964, after graduating from the teacher's college in Melbourne.

Mr Wood did not always want to be a teacher; while in high school, he considered a career in science.

But it seems likely that the influence of his grade six teacher in Yarrawonga guided him on a pathway into education.

Mr Wood said this teacher was "really impressive", and he had never seem someone so prepared in the classroom.

"I suppose, in a way, he might have been the catalyst to make me think about teaching, because he was such an accomplished teacher in his own right," Mr Wood said.

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Mr Wood was a teacher for the better part of 40 years, but even after his retirement, he worked for a few years assessing student teachers when they were in the classroom.

He said that was very enjoyable, being able to go out and talk to the students.

It was because of teaching that Mr Wood found a home in Bendigo.

He moved to the city for a job in 1983 and has remained ever since.

Bendigo was central in the state, Mr Wood said, and enjoyed a warm, pleasant autumn.

Two of his children, Gregory and Michelle, completed their schooling in Bendigo, at what was then Catholic College Bendigo.

Tragically, Mr Wood's second child, Kylie, had profound disabilities and died in 1988 at the age of 10.

Mr Wood said Kylie was a "delightful little girl" who "taught me a whole host of things".

Michelle now lives in Canberra with her husband and her three children, while Greg is in Fawkner with his wife and daughter.

Mr Wood met his second wife, Llevelyse, through a group of people who would get together and go out on a Friday night.

They got to know each other better through the public speaking group Toastmasters, after Mr Wood mentioned it to one of Llevelyse's friends, and became engaged in 2005.

They have now been married for 14 years.

Mr Wood might also be known to many in the community through his involvement with the Lions Club.

He said he first got interested in service clubs while working at Kaniva in the 1970s, and after moving to Bendigo, joined the Y's Men Club.

When the Maiden Gully-Marong Lions Club formed in 1998, he signed up.

Since then, he has held just about every position, from president - which he is currently - to bulletin writer.

He was also a district governor, and was the inaugural governor of a new, large district that formed from the amalgamation of two others, spanning Melbourne to the north of the state.

An inspiration, he said, was a man by the name of AJ (Alexander John) Wood, a former mayor of Stawell who was very active in community life.

In his time at Lions, he has organised bushfire relief and flood relief for affected communities across the region and further afield, such as Charlton and Kinglake.

"I've enjoyed doing that sort of stuff, being actively involved in the community," he said.

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