Orator Frank Woodward, Jr. '65 (1944-2018)

Frank entered with the class of 1965 but graduated with our class and is in our Nassau Herald. The family seeks any stories alumni might have concerning Frank. Click here for Frank's PAW Memorial.

John Mason writes the following memories of Frank:

I'm attaching a photograph of Frank at the March on Washington, and some memories of him. (There was a bus from the front of Nassau Hall down to the march, carrying students and townspeople.)

Frank Woodward and I were good friends, fellow travelers in the confusing sixties, sharing experiences--good and not so good--of that milieu. I have a short note from him written back then with the words "sky walker” and "star” on it, a collocation I had never seen before—I don’t know where he had heard it.  Frank had a mystical side;  he was interested in eastern religion and its intersection with Christianity,  in practice as well as theory.  To me he was sincere and generous friend.

Frank lent me his VW bus freely. He told me he had it painted in colors that reminded him of me.  I remember driving it from New Haven to Princeton in a very cold, icy snowfall, and passing many stranded cars, since his bus had the engine over the drive wheels.

The last time I saw Frank, he was on his way to a commune of some sort, maybe in upstate New York. He was going to drive the bus, and for some reason I warned him that the commune might find a way to steal it--and as I remember it, that's what happened.

Frank and I shared things about religion--in fact, only a day or two ago  I had in my hand a book he gave me about religion, and found again his note to me written on the flyleaf.