Frederick S. Wood, an engineer who was instrumental in developing UB’s telecommunications system, died March 27 in Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital. He was 82.

A graduate of Williamsville High School, Wood earned an electrical engineering degree from UB. He was a research engineer working on defense industry projects and as manager of plant engineering at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory — later Calspan — before joining UB as telecommunications manager in 1984. Among his responsibilities was working on telecommunications infrastructure to link the North, South and Downtown campuses.

Bonnie Bright, recently retired senior academic adviser in the College of Arts and Sciences, worked with Wood when Calspan installed a digital telephone system supplied by the company Bright was working for at the time.

“It was evident Fred was most interested in the technology and how the PBX (private branch exchange telephone system) worked, along with the changing federal telecommunications regulatory market,” Bright recalled. “I believe that is what brought him to UB in the early ’80s — to start a telecommunications department and upgrade the entire South/North campus conversion from analog to digital telecommunications.”

Bright said she began working at UB in 1985 at Wood’s suggestion.

“I will always be forever grateful for his guidance, knowledge and energetic outlook, and the opportunities afforded to me,” she said. “I am forever grateful to have known such a wise, valued and genuinely kind person.”

Wood retired from UB in 2007 as associate director for computer services, Operational Support Services.

For more than four decades he operated a private consulting firm that worked with police and fire departments on public safety communications systems.

He enjoyed running for exercise — Bright said he never missed a day of running on his lunch hour. He also liked to build things, using his engineering skills in the design and construction of numerous Habitat for Humanity homes.

A lifetime member of Williamsville United Methodist Church, Wood was a trustee for the Forest Lawn Group of Cemeteries, a former chairman of the Williamsville Zoning Board of Appeals, a former vice chairman of the Beechwood Blocher Foundation, and a member of the board of directors at Beechwood Continuing Care and Gateway United Methodist Youth Center.