Dorothy Wood

MEMORIAL INFO

*A MEMORIAL SERVICE for Dorothy Wood will be held Monday March 31, 2025 at Forest Lawn Cemetary Hollywood Hills, across from the Warner Brothers lot. Service begins promptly at 9amPST.

*For those unable to attend the memorial, the link below will livestream the service starting at 8:55amPST on Monday.

LIVESTREAM LINK FOR MEMORIAL

*SHIVA for Dorothy Wood will be hosted by her friends Dan and Michelle Petty beginning at 10:30amPST on Monday. Shivas are traditionally open-house style; visitors may bring food or drink, and come and go anytime throughout the day until 8pm that evening. Address is 11849 Hartsook Street, Valley Village, CA. Street parking available.

OBITUARY

Dorothy Wood, a writer and devoted mother and wife, passed away peacefully in Los Angeles on Tuesday March 25th while holding her husband David's hand. The cause was cancer.

Dorothy was born in Philadelphia in 1970 to Gerald and Ann Pomerantz. Big sister to Michael Pomerantz, Dorothy was also a cousin in a large and loving family of Philadelphia Pomerantzes. She was raised Jewish. As a young child, Dorothy quickly distinguished herself as an outstanding student at Germantown Friends School. A 1989 graduate of The Baldwin School, Dorothy went on to study political science at Vassar College, where she made many lifelong friends. In 1996 she graduated Northwestern Medill School of Journalism with her Masters.

Dorothy's journalism career took her to Boston where Vassar friends introduced her to their neighbor, a tall Brit who shared her passion for classic cinema. It took but a few months of ostensibly platonic movie outings, live music and day trips to the coast for Dorothy and David Wood to realize they were in love. They married in front of friends and family on a humid summer day in Philadelphia in 2001.

An opportunity to write for the Los Angeles Business Journal brought Dorothy and David to Los Angeles in 1999. Dorothy was subsequently hired at Forbes to cover the entertainment business. While at Forbes, she rose from Staff Writer to LA Bureau Chief. She produced their top-selling "Celebrity 100" issue and wrote a respected industry blog viewed by millions. She interviewed Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Simon Cowell on the set of American Idol and Michael Bay shooting an action sequence in White Sands, New Mexico.

Dorothy and David’s home in Studio City quickly became and has remained Headquarters for an ardent group of friends, including those from childhood and Vassar who migrated to Los Angeles soon after she did and expanding to include many devoted new friends. Fourth of July parties watching the spectacular array of fireworks dot the valley below, effortlessly gourmet dinner parties, game nights that got way too competitive and backyard BBQs were just some of the occasions that Dorothy hosted with a warmth and casualness that belied the concerted effort she put in to ensure her friends and family had a great time.

In 2003, Dorothy and David welcomed their daughter Sadie, followed by son Benjamin in 2007. Their tight knit family loved each other's company most of all; they spent many nights at Korean BBQ or watching movies. Dorothy often described her kids as her favorite humans and "the funniest people I know."

In 2015 Dorothy left Journalism to take on the Managing Editor role at Fitch Ink, a content strategist group, where she worked with people she adored and did work in which she took pride. In recent years, she channeled her interest in politics and concern for our democracy into activism, volunteering and organizing with Indivisible and phone banking for Democrat candidates.

Dorothy was predeceased by her mother Ann in 2021. She will be missed and treasured eternally by her children, Sadie and Ben, her devoted husband David, her brother Michael, sister-in-law Emily, father Gerald, her vast extended family in Philadelphia, in-laws Graham and Margaret Wood, brother and sister- in-law Steven and Lindsey Wood, many nieces and nephews, and the dozens and dozens of friends who've been lucky enough to love and be loved by her. The Wood family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Dorothy's memory to WeSpark, a non-profit cancer support group. https://wespark.org/donate/

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