Woodward, Carl Raymond, 1890-

Carl C. Woodward was born on July 20, 1890 in Tennant, New Jersey. He attended Rutgers University as an undergraduate from 1910-1914, earned a Master's degree from Rutgers in 1919, and a Ph.D. from Cornell in 1926. From 1920-1926 he taught English at Rutgers, and in 1928, he was promoted to assistant to the president of the university. He remained in this position until President Robert C. Clothier appointed him Secretary in 1936. Dr. Woodward's tenure as Secretary of the University ended in 1941, when he assumed the presidency of the University of Rhode Island, from which position he retired in 1958. He died on October 2,1974.

Carl Raymond Woodward was born in Tennant, Monmouth County New Jersey in 1890, and began his educational career in a one-room rural school near his home. After graduation from Rutgers in 1914, and a year of teaching high school, he joined the staff of Rutgers. There he served in various positions, including five years as Secretary of the University. He earned MA in 1919, Rutgers; his PhD in 1926 from Cornell. In 1941he accepted the presidency of Rhode Island State College at Kingston. Under his tenure, the college attained university status in 1950. He served as President until his retirement in 1958. He was awarded honorary doctorates by Brown University, Bryant College, Providence College, Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island, as well as several universities outside the state of Rhode Island. Dr. and Mrs. Woodward retired to Myrtlewood, the home he built in Kingston in 1958. Woodward remained quite active during his retirement, publishing several articles and books. Woodward lead the effort to save the original farm house, Watson House, from demolition in the early 1960s. The house was ultimately restored, furnished, and serves as a museum to this day. He also authored the book, Plantation in Yankeeland, and partially completed another, Boy with a hoe, at the time of his death on October 2, 1974. .

Carl Raymond Woodward was born on a New Jersey farm in 1890, and began his educational career in a one-room rural school near his home. After graduation from Rutgers in 1914, and a year of teaching high school, he joined the staff of his alma mater. There he served in various positions, including five years as Secretary of the University, meanwhile earning a Ph.D. at Cornell. In 1941, he came to Rhode Island to accept the presidency of the growing Rhode Island State College at Kingston. Under his tenure, the college attained university status in 1950. He served as President until his retirement in 1958. He was awarded honorary doctorates by Brown University, Bryant College, Providence College, Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island, as well as several universities outside the state of Rhode Island. Deeply attached to Rhode Island, Dr. and Mrs. Woodward retired to Myrtlewood, the home he built in Kingston. Woodward remained quite active during his retirement, publishing several articles, including "From College to University, 1941-1958 - A Summary Report by the Fifth President of the University of Rhode Island". Woodward lead the effort to save the original farm house, Watson House, from demolition in the early 1960s. The house was ultimately restored, furnished, and serves as a museum to this day. He also authored the book, Plantation in Yankeeland, and partially completed another, Boy With a Hoe, before succumbing to a heart attack on October 2, 1974, at the age of 84.

TIME LINE

1890: Born July 20 at Tennent, Monmouth County, NJ

1906: Graduate from Freedhold High School

1906-1908: Worked on family farm

1908-1910: Taught in one room school, Monmouth County

1910-1914: Attended Rutgers University, majored in science and education

1914: Earned BS degree; taught in Rutgers summer school

1914-1915: Taught physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics at Madison High School in New Jersey

1915-1916: Editor and Librarian, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and College of Agriculture at Rutgers University

1916: Married Lulu A. Ryno, April 5th

1916-1927: Editor and Secretary, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and College of Agriculture at Rutgers University

1917: Carl R., Jr. born October 21st

1919: MA, Rutgers University; second child. Mildred Ryno born October 1st

1926: PhD, Cornell University

1920-1941: Held various positions at Rutgers.

1932: Third child, William Neste born July 2nd

1941: Appointed President of Rhode Island State College

1950: First President of University of Rhode Island

1958: Retires from URI

1963: In January $20,000 is raised to restore Watson House. The Board of Trustees pledged the additional restoration costs. Restoration and refurbishing of the house was completed in 1964.

1974: Dies October 2nd

See Also the Records of the Office of the President, Carl Woodward

Carl Raymond Woodward, the fifth president of the then Rhode Island State College, was born on a farm in rural New Jersey in 1890. An educational career that culminated in the presidency of Rhode Island's land grant college began in a one-room schoolhouse near his home. After graduation from Rutgers University in 1914, Woodward joined the staff of his alma mater a year later, serving in a variety of capacities over the next twenty-six years. In the interim, he earned a Ph.D. in rural education from Cornell University.

After a year of negotiations, Woodward assumed the presidency of Rhode Island State College in November, 1941. His tenure began at a trying time for both the College and the nation. The nation was on the brink of a war that would begin five weeks after Woodward assumed office, and the College had just endured an often bitter confrontation between the Board of Trustees and former President Bressler that ended only with Bressler's loss of a court suit to regain his job. Woodward led the College through the difficult war and post-war years of the forties when enrollment bottomed out at 363 in early 1944 and peaked at 3200 in early 1946. Under his direction the academic program expanded and the physical plant grew to accomodate the new offerings. In 1951, Rhode Island State College achieved university status as it became the University of Rhode Island by legislative enactment.

Woodward retired from the presidency in June, 1958 after nearly seventeen years at the helm, the second longest tenure of any Rhode Island president. He built a home in Kingston and remained active in community and University affiars until his death from a heart attack in 1974 at the age of eighty-four.