PASSINGS : Thor E. Wood; Led Performing Arts Research Center

Thor E. Wood, 55, who helped the Performing Arts Research Center of the New York Public Library grow to international importance. During the 23 years he headed the center, the four research collections--dance, music, the Rodgers and Hammerstein archives of recorded sound and the Billy Rose Theater collection--became internationally known. Wood graduated from Pomona College with a music major. He earned a master’s degree in library science at UC Berkeley before doing graduate work at Princeton. In New York on Thursday of the complications of AIDS.