William Johnson Woods Jr. ’44

Bill died Sept. 22, 2012, in Montecito, Calif., after a long illness.

A direct descendant of John Witherspoon, he left Princeton in 1943 to become an ambulance driver with the American Field Service in North Africa under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. He was awarded the Africa Star and Italy Star.

Bill married Colette Ives, whom he met in Cairo, and they had a daughter, Colette. They divorced in 1959. His second marriage, to Margaret Burke, ended with her death nine years later.

He started his career with Pennsylvania Glass Sand Co. in Pittsburgh and was a member of the company’s board. Bill continued in industrial materials by starting his own company, Unimin, from which he retired in 1990. He also served as chairman of the Winchester and Western Railroad and was a board member of SCR Sibelco, the largest silica producer in Europe.

With his third wife, Barbara, he moved to Santa Barbara in 1994. He then bought a Johns Manville mining facility in Lompoc, Calif. He came to love Kerry blue terriers, owning four of these dogs.

Bill is survived by Barbara, Colette, and three grandchildren. His father was William Johnson Woods Sr. 1911.