Black History Month Tribute

Dr. Barbara McAlpine Woods

December 9, 1945 – December 23, 2004

        Barbara lived and worked in St. Louis, Missouri.  This is from the St. Louis American newspaper’s front-page article - December 30, 2004 issue.  Notice of her passing was also carried in the New York Amsterdam News and all local St. Louis papers.

          While taking care of her family, Dr. Woods passionately served on Commissions and Boards such as the Urban League, the St. Louis Art Museum, Civic Task Forces, the Girl Scouts of America, the YMCA and more.  She encouraged young people to pursue their education and be contributors, confident of their tremendous value in the world.  “Have a plan and keep building on that plan.” She was a determined force petitioning leaders to provide the best for the communities they represented.  Many benefited from her untiring dedication to a project.

       Cancer took Barbara from us more than ten years ago.  It was surely much too soon, but her inspiration lives on in those she taught by her works and her words.

        I join many others who will always remember the life Barbara M. Woods lived as educator, strategist, communicator, wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, grandmother and heralded African-American Studies scholar.  She earned her Doctorate in African-American Studies from St. Louis University.

        Proudly, Barbara was my sister-in-law, forever loved and dearly missed.