KU mourns the loss of fellow student
His resume merely glimpsed at the professional sense of Andrew Woodward. He wanted to be a high school English teacher and his credentials proved that he would have been successful.
His looks, however, told a different story. He was a lanky 26-year-old, often wearing his dirty blonde hair in a ponytail, and always attired in tie-dye which could be described as his own personal “uniform.”
Woodward died on Feb. 3 in his sleep. At press time, the cause of his death is still unknown. After earning his master’s degree in Secondary Education/English at KU, he was student teaching at a local school this semester to get his certificate.
“Quirky” was used to describe Woodward by more than one of his colleagues. Crystal Ludwig, an English graduate student, sat smiling as she described her experiences with Woodward working in the Writing Center. “He was definitely a joker. He had a really quirky sense of humor.”
As a writing tutor, both Ludwig and the Writing Center’s director Amy Lynch-Biniek, described Woodward as a patient and pleasant student.
Aside from his apparent smarts, Woodward could have been called a renaissance man.
“He had a mix of interests and abilities,” said Lynch-Biniek. Woodward had earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he also minored in Math and Music, according to his resume. He was a bass player for his Virginia-based band, Viben Oodle, which, according to the band’s Myspace page, was a “distinct voice in electronic jazz.” He was a jack-of-all-trades, a friendly teacher with an artistic soul.
The obituary in the Reading Eagle said he died peacefully in his sleep. On Feb. 15, there will be a memorial for him held in room 250 of the McFarland Student Union Building at 4 p.m.
For now, friends and family are using his Facebook page as a memorial site, leaving comforting comments and heartening memories. One friend wrote a clearly fitting note, “You were one of a kind … You were a wonderful person and will be missed forever.”
Share
