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<em>Roscoe Barnett Woodruff</em>, known affectionately by his comrades and friends by the nickname of either “Woody” or “Spike,” was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, on 9 February 1891, the only child of Rhoda Barnett Woodruff and Calvin Woodruff. He attended the public schools in Oskaloosa and subsequently was enrolled at the State University at Ames for his freshman year of college training. He applied and qualified for entrance into the United States Military Academy in 1911 as a member of what later was to be adjudged the distinguished Class of 1915. The choice of a military career was largely influenced by his father, "Cap” Woodruff, who had conspicuously served as a captain in the Infantry in the Federal Iowa militia from Oskaloosa during the Civil War. He also gained from his father the various skills of craftsmanship, the satisfaction of outdoor activities in nature’s realm, competitive sportsmanship, marksmanship and a thorough indoctrination in the arts of fishing, hunting, canoeing and backpacking. All of these skills he retained and practiced throughout his lifetime.</div>
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With this background it is understandable that as a cadet he excelled in physical fitness challenges. He established a new record for the hammer throw and had the distinction of kicking the winning field goal in the Colgate-Army football game of 1913. He earned his coveted “A” in both football and the hammer throw. However, the capstone of his cadet career was selection as First Captain of the Corps in his First Class year. Based on his own desires, upon graduation he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Infantry together with his fellow classmates Omar Bradley and “Ike” Eisenhower and many more of the Class of 1915 destined to achieve distinction in their later years of military and public service.</div>
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After graduation Woody was posted along with several classmates to the Infantry, then positioned on the Texas-Mexican border, to counter the Mexican threats of the Pancho Villa regime. It was there that he met Alice Wallace Gray, daughter of Colonel Alonzo Gray, United States Military Academy Class of 1887, a hearty Cavalryman of the 14th Cavalry. Woody and Alice were married at Fort McIntosh, Laredo, Texas on 17 May 1917. Of this union there were two children, Roscoe B. Woodruff Jr., (United States Military Academy Class of 1941) and Dorothy Woodruff Daniels, with nine grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. Woody would often quip that in 58 years of married life with a "Cavalry girl” there were never any family arguments about the relative merits of the Cavalry and Infantry; although he was never completely comfortable in his required Academy equitation classes!</div>
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After the Mexican border difficulties, Woody as a young captain in the Infantry in command of Company "H," 9th Infantry, was among the first of his classmates to enter combat in World War I in the fall of 1917. This combat experience during 1917-18 served him in good stead in his later command and staff assignments during the final stages of the war and in the post-war operations.</div>
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During the fallow times between World War I and II, Woody’s assignments followed the normal course of events of a Regular Army officer of the combat arms: staff, command, schooling, instructorships and overseas stationing in Panama in 1921-24. He was designated an honor graduate at the Command and General Staff College in 1927. As a result, following graduation he was detailed as an instructor at the College during 1927-1931. Other significant highlights in his career included duty as a Tactical Officer at the United States Military Academy during 1932-1936. It was during this tour he earned the nickname “Spike,” awarded to him secretively by the cadets since Woody had been assigned the additional impossible duty as the official censor of the contents of the “Pointer!”</div>
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After attendance at the War College in 1931 and duty with the War Department General Staff during 1936-1940, the days immediately prior to World War II found Woody as a battalion commander and later the regimental commander of the distinguished 23d Infantry Regiment of the 2d Infantry Division; the same organization he had served in World War I. Subsequently, he was designated as the Assistant Division Commander of the newly activated 77th Infantry Division in early 1942 and later became the division commander. Other wartime assignments included command of VII Corps, the 84th Infantry Division, Army Garrison Force 248 in the Pacific area, and later commander of the 24th Infantry Division during the campaigns on Leyte, Luzon and Mindanao in the Philippines. In the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1948 he commanded I Corps of the Eighth United States Army. Upon return to the United States in 1948 he served as the Deputy Commander, First United States Army at Governors Island, New York, and briefly as the Army Commander. His last duty assignment was the Commanding General, XV Corps at Fort Polk, Louisiana.</div>
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Alice and Woody retired from the Service in 1953 at Fort Polk after a total of 42 years in uniform and faithful service to his country. Actually, Alice topped Woody's record by several years with a rightful claim to "service” as an Army “brat" with her Cavalry father including an overseas tour in the Philippines as early as 1903.</div>
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As might be expected, Alice and Woody retired in San Antonio close by Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in the area where so much of their respective lifetimes in the Service had been spent. In retirement Woody continued to pursue his hobbies of craftsmanship, active participation in physical fitness activities such as tennis, and without exception always maintaining his avid interest in the out-of-doors—hunting, fishing and marksmanship.</div>
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After retirement, within the family circle, when quizzed on the question of what he thought were his significant accomplishments in a lifetime of military service, he would reticently suggest the honor accorded him as selection as First Captain of the Corps; the recognition accorded him to command Infantry troops in every grade from second lieutenant to major general; the deep appreciation of being afforded the opportunity of serving as a tactical officer at the United States Military Academy for four years from 1932-1936 where he felt deeply his responsibility in contributing to moulding the character and development of literally hundreds of "his cadets" during their impressionable and formative years.</div>
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Woody has left us now. , . further depleting the thinning ranks of the distinguished Class of 1915, He will be remembered by literally thousands of service men and women whom he touched in his 42 years in uniform in his command assignments and staff associations...a stern but fair commander and let’s not forget his ever sparkling sense of humor and imperturbability to adverse conditions when the going was rough. He was ever proud to be a commander and above all, an Infantryman!</div>
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