Overview
- Wood was struck by a vehicle in the Shaw’s Supermarket parking lot in East Providence on Sunday, June 7, was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, and later died of his injuries.
- East Providence police said the vehicle’s female operator remained on scene and is cooperating with investigators, no charges have been filed so far, and the Traffic/Crash Reconstruction Team and detectives are continuing the probe.
- Wood’s daughter confirmed his death to news outlets and university leaders, colleagues and national institutions issued tributes that highlighted his influence as a teacher and public commentator.
- A long‑time Brown University professor, Wood won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for The Radicalism of the American Revolution, the Bancroft Prize for earlier work, and received a National Humanities Medal in 2011.
- Scholars say Wood’s books changed how historians see the Revolution by stressing its social and ideological effects, a stance that won wide esteem but also criticism for underemphasizing slavery, women and Indigenous people and for his public critiques of projects like the 1619 Project.