Name: Wood, Wendell C.
Title: ASFMRA District V Vice-President
Texas A&M Class: 1986
Inducted: 2022
Biography
Wendell Wood grew up in Jones County, Texas, where he attended school in the Lueders-Avoca ISD, and actively participated in FFA, high school athletics, and UIL academic events. In FFA, he participated in livestock judging, and showed cattle at local and state shows and fairs. He earned the Star Greenhand and Star Chapter Farmer awards at the local, district, and area levels, and he earned FFA’s highest honor, the American Farmer Degree. He also held leadership positions, including FFA Chapter President, District President, and Area Vice President.
Wood graduated from Texas A&M University in 1986 with his B.S. in Dairy Science. During his undergraduate years, Dr. Carl Coppock was an important advisor. As an undergraduate, Wood was president of the Dairy Science Club (1985-1986) and a member of the Dairy Judging team (1983-1984). During this time, he met Dr. Ivan Schmedemann, Dr. Carl Anderson, and Dr. Carl Shafer in the Agricultural Economics department. These professors strongly influenced his graduate work at Texas A&M. While he was familiar with the Land Economics and Real Estate (LERE) program at the time, he had his sights set on agricultural price analysis. Wood graduated with his first master’s degree in Agricultural Economics in 1988, working with Dr. Shafer and Dr. Anderson.
His first job out of school was working as a commodity futures broker in the Abilene area. He soon realized that he needed to relocate to Chicago or Kansas City to have a chance to excel in this field. Not wanting to leave Texas, Wood decided to pursue a career change and enrolled in the LERE program. Dr. Schmedemann helped him find an assistantship in the department, and Dr. Shafer took him on as an assistant while he completed the LERE program.
In May 1990, upon graduating from Texas A&M with a second master’s degree in Land Economics and Real Estate, he began working at Kokel Appraisal Associates in Georgetown, Texas, where he specializes in farm and ranch valuation. In August of 2001, Kokel Appraisal Associates was reorganized into Kokel-Oberrender-Wood Appraisal, Ltd.
Actively involved in many professional organizations in the real estate industry, Wood is a member of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA). He has earned his Accredited Rural Appraisers (ARA) license, served as the Texas Chapter President of the (2009-2010), a member of ASFMRA Accreditation and Education Committee (2006-2012, 2015-2019), and a member of ASFMRA Textbook Committee (2011). He is currently the ASFMRA District V Vice-President (2018-2021), the Chair of the Texas ASFMRA Legislative Committee, and a member of Texas ASFMRA Public Relations Committee. Wood participated on an ASFMRA panel discussing Texas Land Markets in 2019 hosted by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. In 2017, he was awarded the Appraisal Professional of the Year award and the H.E. “Buck” Stalcup Excellence in Education Award by the ASFMRA. He was the President of the Society of Texas A&M Real Estate Professionals (2005-2006) and the President of the Foundation Appraisers Coalition of Texas (2013-2015). Wood holds the MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute.
Wood has been a guest speaker to students in the Master of Real Estate (MRE) program at Texas A&M University (formerly known as the Land Economics and Real Estate program) about lease analysis applications. He has hosted summer interns from the MRE program, interns from the Department of Agricultural Economics, and is currently supervising a MRE graduate working towards her appraiser’s license.
As an active member of the First Baptist Church, Salado, Wood has served in various roles, including Chair of the Personnel Committee.
As a lifelong “rural” Texas resident, he has proudly lived outside any city limits, with the exception of the time he spent in College Station as a student at Texas A&M. He and his wife, Diane (Animal Science ’86), currently reside in Bell County where he has a small cattle operation. Wood is an active pilot, flying for both business and pleasure, and his hobbies include travel, hiking, shooting sports, and wood and metal working.