David Duffield Wood

David Duffle Wood (March 2, 1838 — March 25, 1910), sometimes written as David Duffield Wood or David Duffel Wood, was an American composer, educator, and musician. He was blind from early childhood. Wood was the organist and choir master at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia for 46 years. Early life and education David Duffle Wood was born in 1838 near Pittsburgh, one of the six sons of Jonathan Humphreys Wood and Wilhelmina Jones Wood. Through illness and accident, he lost his vision as a young child. He was five years old in 1843 when he was enrolled in the Institute for the Instruction of the Blind in Philadelphia. By the time he was sixteen, he was listed in the school’s reports as an assistant music teacher. Beyond music, he also studied mathematics with James G. Blaine, while the future U. S. Secretary of State was a young teacher at the school for the blind. Career Wood was hired as organist at St. Stephen’s Church in 1864, and added the title choir master in 1870. He gave his first major recital in 1868, with a program of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel and Mendelssohn. In 1894, St. Stephen’s marked the 30th year of Wood’s position as organist with a celebratio