Former Secret Service Agent for 3 Presidents to Speak

Former Secret Service agent Tim Wood

A former Secret Service agent who was on the protection detail for three U.S. Presidents will share his experiences with the Westminster College community Friday, September 23, at noon in Hazel Annex Room 112 of the Reeves Library on campus.

Tim Wood, who is a native of Washington, MO, will relate stories from his recently published memoir, Criminals and Presidents: The Adventures of a Secret Service Agent.

“The Westminster College Security Studies program and the Order of the Sword and Shield Academic Honors Society are pleased to host Mr. Wood,” says Dr. Tobias Gibson, Associate Professor of Political Science. “Because of his wealth of knowledge, this is an excellent opportunity to learn about homeland security and federal crime and criminals.”

Professor Gibson was instrumental in bringing the former Secret Service agent to campus and Wood will meet with one of Professor Gibson’s classes.

Wood worked for 22 years with the U.S. Secret Service and during that period was sometimes assigned to the Presidential Protection Division at the White House.

He served George H.W. Bush in the last six months of his presidency, Bill Clinton for 4 ½ years and George W. Bush for the first two years of his presidency.

His duty in the early years was dealing with crime such as counterfeiting and  credit card theft along with two other agents in Las Vegas.

A 1971 graduate of Washington High School, Wood earned an education degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia and during that time took the Platoon Leaders class, a class for college students who want to become officers in the Marine Corps.

Before his last semester in college, he spent 12 weeks at Officer Candidate School.  He graduated in December 1977 and was commissioned as a 2^nd lieutenant in the Marine Corps in January 1978.

He spent two years in training and four years as a Naval flight officer.

In November 1984 he was sworn in as a Secret Service agent in the Los Angeles field office and remained there until 1987 when he was moved to Las Vegas to work on criminal cases against counterfeiters and bank and credit card fraud.

Wood retired from the Secret Service in 2006.