On Friday, Sept. 13, 2013, at Angel's Touch Assisted Living in De Pere,
William Stuart Woodward, a Green Bay businessman and community leader for
half a century, died precisely as he would have wished: surrounded by his
wife of 57 years and his children. "Bill," as he was universally known, was
a victim of metastatic melanoma, detected only four months earlier. He was
81 years old.
A native of Rocky River, Ohio, Bill Woodward graduated from the University of
Notre Dame in 1954 with a degree in engineering. While serving stateside as
an Army officer he married Noreen Gallagher of Shawano, a graduate of St.
Mary's College in Notre Dame, Ind. After working at Rex Chain Belt in
Milwaukee, Bill moved his family to Green Bay in 1967, where, with a
handful of mechanical pencils, a slide rule and an office in the basement,
he established his firm of manufacturers' representatives, the W.S.
Woodward Company. By 1985, the company employed five sales representatives
with sales of over $3 million. Bill liked nothing better than solving
materials-handling problems for clients, and, in 1984, patented a "stub
idler," which he sold along with other conveyor parts through his second
company, Bassco.
A committed Roman Catholic, Bill regularly attended daily Mass at
Resurrection Church, where he served on the school board and, until his
illness, on the parish council. He believed that faith required service to
others, which he provided as a board member of Family Services in Green
Bay, support work for the Menominee tribe and the St. Vincent DePaul
Society. Always handy with tools, in retirement Bill traveled to
Resurrection's sister parish in Mississippi to do repair work after a
hurricane there.
Bill was a keen fan of the Packers and the Fighting Irish. Athletically
adept himself, he played tennis and baseball well into his 60s and
remained an avid golfer; he had just finished a round the day his cancer
was diagnosed. But his later life centered on his grandchildren — especially
their own athletic development, which he followed in person at their
football, basketball, hockey and soccer games, and fostered at the family's
summer cottage on the lake in Shawano.
Mr. Woodward is survived by his wife, Noreen, a retired nurse practitioner;
a son, Bill Woodward; two daughters, Mary Beth Freberg and Kathleen A.
Biebel, of Green Bay, and daughter Suzanne M. Szuhaj, of Oakland, Calif.; a
sister, Nancy Bouhall, of Bay Village, Ohio; a brother, Kenneth L., of Chicago; a brother, Robert A., of Potomac, Md.; and 11 grandchildren, Quinn and
Jenna Freberg, Kathleen, Patrick and Gretchen Biebel, Allison, Will,
Madeline and Sophia Woodward, and Samantha, Jake and Isabelle Szuhaj.
Visitation will be held at Resurrection Parish, 333 Hilltop Drive, Green
Bay, between 4 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, and 9:30-11 a.m.
Wednesday, with funeral Mass to follow with Bishop Robert Morneau
officiating.
Cotter Funeral Home, De Pere, is assisting the family.
In lieu of flowers, donations accepted to a memorial fund in Bill's name.
Online
condolences may be expressed at www.cotterfuneralhome.com.
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