Joe Woods Obituary

Woods, Joe recently of 6338 Grove Road, Clinton, Ohio, long-time resident of the Chicago area and Northport, New York, died while running the morning of July 21. Born to Joseph I. Woods and Lucille Kirk Woods, in Annapolis, Maryland, February 5, 1945, he left behind his mother and nine surviving brothers and sisters; his wife of 37 years, Cathy Copley-Woods; and daughters and sons-in-law, whose lives and work carry on his life in so many ways and of whom he was inordinately proud: Haddayr Copley-Woods, writer, Alaunde Copley-Woods, flutist, Noe Woods, physician, Djuna Copley-Woods, engineer, Jan Radder, teacher, Pete Dombrowski, ecologist, Asantha Cooray, astrophysicist, and two-year-old grandson Arie Copley-Radder, budding mechanical genius. Joe was an extraordinary husband, father and friend; a strong man, of body, intellect, and will; and a prodigious raconteur who rejected pretension wherever he found it. He gave his family his profound appreciation of music, science, philosophy, literature, and invention; his respect for skilled labor and democratic principles; his unwavering support and interest in all that they thought, said, did; his warm, powerful hands and all the things they built. Over the years, Joe worked as an English and Philosophy teacher at Central Y Community College, Roosevelt University, and the University of Illinois, Circle Campus; master mechanic and small shop owner in Park Forest, Illinois; president of his Park Forest housing cooperative; interstate truck driver; and writer, editor and photographer for a number of national automotive trade magazines and of the monthly automotive puzzler/tall tale, "The Clank Factor," read across the country by a loyal following of auto mechanics and shop owners. Following his organ donation and cremation, family, friends, and colleagues joined together at his home to celebrate his life with shared stories and Beethoven's music. His family is arranging an educational scholarship in his memory.