Don Woodard Sr., longtime Fort Worth businessman, author, and highly regarded voice on political and civic issues, died Monday, Sept. 18. He was 97.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at Broadway Baptist Church, 305 West Broadway Avenue. Fort Worth. A reception at the church will follow the funeral, and burial services will be at 3:45 p.m. at Greenwood Memorial Park, 3100 White Settlement Road, Fort Worth.
A United States Navy veteran of World War II and a graduate of Texas Christian University, Woodard had a varied career in business after completing his military service before founding Woodard Insurance with sons Don Jr. and Blake in 1986. He remained a partner in the business until sidelined by failing health earlier this year.
Woodard was active in politics both behind the scenes and as a candidate. He served as a delegate to the 1960 Democratic National Convention that nominated John F. Kennedy for president and ran unsuccessfully for the Texas Senate in 1964. He ran for mayor of Fort Worth in a 1982 special election following the resignation of Mayor Woodie Woods, losing a hard-fought campaign to then-City Councilman Bob Bolen.
Woodard earned his bachelor’s degree at TCU in English and Humanities and was a prolific writer on a wide range of subjects. He was especially well known for his commentaries and letters to the editor in a number of publications, including the Fort Worth Business Press and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
His 1997 book “Black Diamonds! Black Gold!” was a definitive and compelling history of the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company, where he worked as a landman in the 1950s and early ’60s.
A voracious reader and collector of news articles and the writings of others, Woodard was uniquely well-informed and opinionated on issues of the day and especially fond of spirited debate – a trait that led him to start a highly popular discussion group called Friends in High Places, which held weekly breakfast meetings at the Petroleum Club in downtown Fort Worth. He later moved the meetings to Colonial Country Club and dubbed the group Country Club Friends. He presided over the meetings until stepping aside in January 2020.
Possessed of a seemingly limitless memory, Woodard often quoted literary passages to make a point – he was especially fond of Shakespeare – and amazingly remembered the birthday of everyone he knew (not to mention the birthday of every president of the United States). In later years, it annoyed him that he didn’t always have someone’s name on the tip of his tongue, but he could still recite Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s farewell address to Congress.
“Oh. How we will miss the Bard,” Business Press Publisher Richard Connor wrote when asked to comment on Woodard’s passing.
“Don Woodard would write something much better than I just did,” Connor added. “He was an intense and insightful community conscience for Fort Worth and Tarrant County. He was just damn smart, smarter than most, and more literate. He was an astute observer of the good and dangerous actions of our political leaders. He cared deeply about Fort Worth and was not afraid to speak out. And he did it with a smile.”
Always with a smile, his legions of friends and admirers would say. He encouraged and participated in rigorous debate but often quoted Thomas Jefferson: “I never let a difference of opinion in politics, religion or philosophy be cause for withdrawing from a friend.”
Paul Harral, who held a number of key management and editing positions at the Star-Telegram and later at the Business Press, often disagreed with Woodard’s opinions but said “he was a joy to read.”
“Don Woodard was a prolific letter writer who could say more in a few words than any person I ever knew,” Harral said. “When I oversaw the editorial page of the Star-Telegram, he’d send us multiple letters in total disregard of our one-letter-per-month guideline. We often differed politically, but he was a joy to read. And he needed no editing. I lost a friend when he died.”
Another friend, the late Clyde Picht, served on the Fort Worth City Council and was a regular participant in Woodard’s Country Club Friends discussions. A profile of Woodard published by the Business Press in 2004 quoted Picht:
“I don’t agree with him all the time, but on city issues we agree more often than not. We’re still good friends and I think we have a mutual admiration for each other for speaking out on issues and speaking with conviction.
“He doesn’t just talk about stuff to get headlines – it’s because he really feels that way. That’s why we have a friendship that can endure. With a lot of people, you get into a discussion on politics and they’ll get offended. Don is never offended.”
Woodard’s most biting newspaper columns and letters to the editor, most would agree, flowed from his early and persistent opposition to the flood control and economic development project originally known as the Trinity River Vision and later marketed as Panther Island. He regularly blasted the project as a “boondoggle” and frequently criticized management of the Tarrant Regional Water District, the agency charged with overseeing and implementing the development.
He was particularly offended by plans to change the configuration of the Trinity River where two forks of the river converge near downtown Fort Worth in order to create a town lake and a San Antonio-like river walk designed to spark commercial and residential development as well as tourism.
“It’s a crime in my mind what’s being done to that river,” he said in the 2004 profile. “It’s a historic confluence. Ripley Arnold stood there in 1849 and decided to build his fort there. That’s why you have the city here – because those two rivers meet. Now they want to cover up the meeting point and build a town lake and I am dead set against it. But I am a voice crying in the wilderness.”
For the record, the estimated cost of the project has skyrocketed to more than $1 billion and although Woodard’s voice in the wilderness has fallen silent, other voices have emerged over the years to echo his opposition.
For all of his interest in politics and public policy, Woodard made his living in the insurance business and he was a pioneering force in that industry. Along with Blake and Don Jr., he was able to establish Woodard Insurance LLP as the first licensed life insurance partnership in the state of Texas. The firm has remained successful and innovative, as detailed in a Business Press article published in 2015.
Through it all, Don Woodard Sr.’s trusted and devoted partner was his wife Wanda, whom he frequently and affectionately referred to as “the speaker of the house.” In the 2004 profile, he called her “a veritable genius.”
The Woodards were married on Nov. 12, 1948, after a 10-month courtship during which Wanda helped Don run an underdog campaign for the office of Democratic precinct chairman. He won, unseating the incumbent chairman.
Woodard is survived by Wanda Woodard; two sons, Don Woodard Jr. and Blake Woodard; daughter-in-law Rosie Woodard; and grandchildren Rachel Woodard-Kelley (husband: Drew Kelley) of Renton, Washington; Sarah Woodard (fiancé: Nathan Orttung) of Sunnyvale, California; William Woodard; and Don Woodard III.
He was preceded in death by his father, William R. Woodard; mother, Cleo Gilley Woodard; brother, Jess Woodard; and sister, Doris Woodard.