By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-06-10 00:51:06 | Updated at 2026-06-10 18:02:10
18 hours ago
A Pulitzer Prize-winning author has died after being hit by a car outside a Rhode Island supermarket.
Gordon S. Wood, 92, one of America's most influential scholars of the Revolutionary era and the founding of the United States, was struck by the vehicle in a shopping plaza parking lot in East Providence on Sunday morning.
Now, as tributes continue to pour in for the renowned academic who was honored by President Barack Obama, police are examining every factor that may have contributed to the crash, including whether the driver may have been distracted.
Evidence gathered so far points to a devastating accident rather than any criminal act.
Wood, a professor emeritus at Brown University, suffered catastrophic injuries after the collision in the parking lot of a Shaw's supermarket.
Emergency dispatch records indicate first responders were alerted to the incident shortly before 11am on Sunday. Wood was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva said investigators are continuing to reconstruct the moments leading up to the collision.
According to DaSilva, the driver, a 69-year-old woman, was traveling through one of the parking lot lanes and attempting to make a left turn when Wood stepped from the sidewalk and a collision occurred.
Gordon S. Wood, 92, died after being struck by a vehicle in a supermarket parking lot in East Providence, Rhode Island on Sunday morning
The fatal collision happened Sunday morning at a Shaw's supermarket plaza on Taunton Avenue. Emergency responders were dispatched to the scene shortly before 11am
As detectives and crash reconstruction specialists piece together what happened, authorities are examining whether anything may have diverted the driver's attention in the seconds before impact.
'All initial indications are that it was a terrible, tragic accident, but [police are] looking at all angles,' DaSilva said. 'They're looking to see if there's anything that could have been distracting the operator. Right now, it's just a horrible, tragic accident.'
The mayor also noted there was no indication that excessive speed played a role.
Authorities have said the woman remained at the scene following the crash and has not been charged.
At the shopping plaza where the collision occurred, customers went about their routines on Tuesday with little visible sign of the tragedy that had unfolded days earlier.
The center – which includes a Shaw's supermarket, CVS pharmacy, a fitness center and several other businesses – contains multiple signs reminding motorists to watch for pedestrians.
Exactly where the collision occurred within the parking lot and which store Wood had visited before the crash have not been publicly disclosed.
East Providence Police Chief Michael J. Rapoza said on Tuesday that the investigation remains active and that further information would be released when available.
In 2011, Wood received the National Humanities Medal from Barack Obama for his scholarship on America's founding
'We will distribute a press release when we have anything further on the case,' Rapoza said.
'I want to offer my condolences to the family of Gordon Wood and the members of the community who knew and loved him. This was a tragic accident that continues to be investigated by the East Providence Police Department,' DaSilva added.
The sudden death of Wood has sent shockwaves through academic circles and beyond, robbing America of one of its most celebrated interpreters of the nation's founding era just weeks before the country's 250th birthday celebrations.
Wood authored dozens of books and essays that shaped generations of students, historians and political thinkers.
His landmark work The Radicalism of the American Revolution earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1993, while The Creation of the American Republic became one of the most influential studies ever written about the origins of the United States.
In 2011, Wood was awarded the National Humanities Medal by then-President Barack Obama, who honored him 'for scholarship that provides insight into the founding of the nation and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.'
'The fact that we lost such a brilliant mind just adds to the tragedy,' DaSilva said.
In addition to being revered in academic circles, Wood also enjoyed an unlikely pop-culture connection.
Wood saw success with the publishing of his first book, The Creation of the American Republic
Wood was mentioned in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting by Matt Damon's titular character
Wood won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for The Radicalism of the American Revolution
He was famously name-checked in the 1997 Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting, when Matt Damon's character launches into a memorable tirade against a Harvard student.
The reference introduced Wood's name to millions of moviegoers.
'That's my two seconds of fame. More kids know about that than any of the books I have written,' Wood later told The Los Angeles Review of Books in 2015.
Just months before his death, Wood was still publicly discussing America's past and future.
Speaking last November at the American Enterprise Institute, he urged Americans to use the nation's upcoming 250th anniversary as an opportunity for reflection.
'To be an American is not to be someone, but to believe in something,' Wood said. 'That is why we are at heart a credo nation and that is why the 250th anniversary of the Declaration next year is so important.'
Filmmaker Ken Burns remembered Wood as 'a teacher of generations of students and other historians who, like him, help us better understand who we are as a country and a people'
Following news of his death, acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns said he was 'devastated' by the loss of his longtime colleague.
'Known to many as one of the foremost scholars of the American Revolution, Gordon was also a teacher of generations of students and other historians who, like him, help us better understand who we are as a country and a people,' Burns wrote.
'He will be greatly missed.'
Historian Woody Holton described the circumstances surrounding Wood's death as particularly painful.
'The tragic accident that killed him is especially heartbreaking in denying him, by less than a month, the chance to celebrate the country's 250th birthday,' Holton said.
