THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501120180
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS
STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 234 lines
THE ELEVATOR door opens, and Winnie Wood steps confidently into her new condominium at the Waterworks complex on the Pasquotank riverfront.
The setting sun casts a soft hazy glow from a west window, and the broad panes on the opposite wall offer a view of the darkening water below.
``It doesn't feel like mine yet,'' Wood, 66, said. ``But it will.''
Wood moved to Elizabeth City in November after living in Camden County for 44 years. She left behind a beautiful, sprawling home on a different Pasquotank shore, built by Wood and her late husband George in 1970.
The 7,200-square-foot house was haven for her children and host to a vast array of figures attracted by one of the area's most prominent political families.
``It was too big,'' Wood said of the house in her jovial, matter-of-fact style. ``I told somebody if I could just sell the yard I could manage.
``I don't rush into something, but I don't think change is bad. Life changes.''
Wood is no stranger to change or challenge. Her drive and persistence, her desire to uplift the downtrodden and awaken the disenfranchised have given life to fledgling service organizations, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and navigated the rough waters of state and local politics for nearly half a century.
Driven by the proposition that hard work and cooperation can conquer any problem, Wood has led organizations, waged campaigns and started dialogues in virtual vacuums to create dim lights from darkness in the state's rural northeast.
Among the organizations touched by Wood:
Albemarle Hopeline, a shelter for abused women and children, which she helped found 12 years ago.
The Watermark Association of Artisans, a crafts cooperative whose predominantly low-income members find markets for their work. Wood donated property for the internationally known association's Camden headquarters, and she chairs the board of directors for the group's non-profit training arm, the Northeastern Education and Development Foundation.
The College of The Albemarle Foundation. Wood was a charter member of the group that raises funds for COA, and she co-chaired with Bill Gaither an early 1980s capital campaign that raised nearly $600,000 for the school's auditorium.
Camden County, where she runs a major agri-business and has chaired the Industrial Development Committee and county Democratic Party.
The State Board of Community Colleges, which oversees the state's 58 community colleges and recently was responsible for hiring a new system president.
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, where Wood spent several years on the State Advisory Panel and other committees, helping to determine the direction of the charitable foundation.
Wood has tackled these and other tasks with what friends call an immense energy and a dedication to pursuing problems until they are eliminated.
``She doesn't say it can't be done,'' said George McKecuen, executive director of NEED. ``When you bring something up, she said, `Why not?' and moves ahead with it.''
Wood's inspiration began not far from her new home, in a number of Elizabeth City neighborhoods where she was first exposed to the value of community and the strength of family.
Wood was raised here, arriving with her family from South Carolina at just over a year old.
``The kind of interesting thing about moving back,'' Wood said, ``is it's a comfortable place for me, and a very familiar place.''
Her father died when she was 3, and her mother raised Winnie and her four older siblings on her own, earning money by picking up black walnuts and filling jars that sold for 15 cents each.
``I still know the sound of her hand hitting the sifter,'' Wood said. ``After I went to bed, that was the noise I heard.''
Wood's childhood was full of role models. Her grandmother had made men's suits to keep her family afloat. Her sister was the first woman ever hired by the Elizabeth City public utility. Both of her sisters, Gwen Madrin and Lois Peele still live in town.
``I always knew women could do things,'' Wood said. ``Growing up I was surrounded by women who were confident, and that's not everybody's experience.''
At age 6, Wood broke both her legs after jumping on the base of a roadside display tombstone, knocking the unconnected upper stone on top of her. The injury left her bedridden, but it also left her hopeful.
She received letters from members of her church and visits from her first-grade teacher. The train that she frequently waved to as it passed her house stopped when operators saw her in bed and wanted to know what was wrong.
``It was in many ways a very positive time for me,'' Wood said. ``It made me realize how the community cared about people.''
Wood played flute and piccolo in the Elizabeth City High School Band. Disappointed more than 30 years later that Camden didn't have a band, she took part in starting one up.
After graduating in 1945, she went to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., to get a degree in sociology. An anthropology class awakened her to the power of education.
``I really discovered how much I didn't know,'' Wood said. ``I remember thinking, how many other things are out there that I don't know yet? I think I fell in love with learning then.''
Wood headed the student religious union in college, one of her first leadership positions. ``It was really a very good experience to have,'' Wood said. ``It became clear that people who thought very differently and believed very differently from me were exceptionally nice and interesting. That isn't something you learn in a small town.''
Another lesson Wood reinforced during college was the value of innovation, also learned through her mother.
When Wood started college, fashion dictated matching sweaters and pleated knee-length skirts, and Wood complied. But by her sophomore year, skirt lengths had dropped to mid-calf.
Unable to afford a new wardrobe and unwilling to stick out as unfashionable, Wood and her mother set about finding a solution. In a stroke of brilliant glee, her mother ripped the pleats from Wood's old skirts, thinning the material out and lowering the hemline.
``We were so excited when we figured out what to do,'' Wood said. ``It was a whole lot more exciting than going out and buying new clothes. We felt proud of what we'd done.
``That sort of symbolizes what I was taught when I was growing up: You solve problems by being creative and innovating.''
After graduating from William and Mary and trying a brief stint in graduate school, Wood returned to North Carolina and married George Wood, a lifelong Camden resident from a farming family.
Wood, while raising her five children, spent about 15 years as volunteer head of the Camden Home Demonstration Club through the cooperative extension service.
George Wood was elected to the General Assembly in 1962, and he stayed there for a decade, immersing his family in political life and opening them to a broad range of experience.
``That was an opportunity for all in the family to learn how government works,'' Wood said. ``It made five children determined to be involved in government always.'' One son, Matt Wood, remains in the area and serves on the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education.
``George was an exceptionally good legislator, I thought,'' Wood said. ``He was a very progressive thinker and a very creative thinker in his work. He loved politics. He was a natural. Absolutely a natural.''
Wood, too, took to politics and insists she will never let go. She backed her husband through an unsuccessful primary run for governor in 1976 and ran for state office twice herself, in 1982 and 1986. She lost both races.
``There had never been a woman on the ballot in this part of the state,'' Wood said of her first effort. ``I thought there should be.''
The campaign trail was tough. ``I went into every country store from Rich Square to Wanchese,'' Wood said. Once in a dark bar, a man pulled her aside and asked, ``Does your husband know you're doing this?''
But her run did prove inspirational, said longtime friend Lucy Gordon, assistant to the president for development at College of The Albemarle.
``That was a great motivator to women in this part of the state who hadn't been involved in politics before,'' Gordon said.
The 1986 election was even more difficult for Wood; her husband and robust supporter died two days before the primary. Wood went on to lose a runoff election.
``I was numb,'' she said. ``George had encouraged me to run. He was really excited about it. . . . It was extremely hard.''
Wood said she ran for office because ``I really thought I could do the job better than I was seeing it being done. . . .
``I think if you're going to encourage other people to do it, you have to be willing to do it yourself.''
Wood doesn't balk at encouraging others to run, or saying what she thinks of political situations. Her name recently arose as a possible candidate for filling a Pasquotank County Commission seat that will be vacated by state Rep.-elect Bill Owens in two weeks.
Wood said she does not want the job, but she adamantly believes the vacancy should be used to bring fresh blood into the system. Last week, former Pasquotank Sheriff Davis Sawyer was a favorite for the job - a choice Wood said she disagrees with despite her respect for Sawyer.
``It's a bit unfortunate that we feel that the way to reward people who have served a long time in a job is to give them another job,'' Wood said. ``Sometimes we tend to choose the same people over and over. . . . It limits the ideas that you get.
``We should really work at opening up the process, at bringing in people who have not served before.''
Wood, a liberal in a conservative region, said new ideas and dialogue are keys to progress but hard to come by.
``I don't mind sharing my ideas with people,'' she said. ``And I don't mind hearing other people's ideas about things. One of the things wrong with the world is we don't talk to enough people who don't agree with us.''
``People feel very threatened sometimes by someone who says what they feel about things,'' Wood said, adding that sometimes speaking her mind is lonely. Once the chair next to hers at a Rotary meeting was empty, ``and I looked around and it was the only chair that was empty.''
Some of Wood's key issues are the kind that many people prefer to stay away from.
``I care about domestic violence and child abuse, and I worry that we have not addressed it,'' Wood said. ``I want religious groups to address it.''
``One of my frustrations is I really don't know the way to empower women,'' she added. ``It's too slow. I would love it if there were some magic potion you could serve. . . . I hate to see people feel that there's nothing they can do. I think that's a real tragedy.''
It's Wood's desire to empower and her belief that things can change for the better that keeps her in politics.
``I could not be uninvolved with politics,'' Wood said, adding that she has no plans to seek office again. ``I care about who runs. I think it's the most important thing at every level.
``I think participating in local government is hard because people know your phone number, and they tell you when they disagree with you.
``I understand really why it is not an appealing thing to do, but it is extremely vital,'' Wood said. ``I think we need to do more in encouraging people that would be good at that to do it.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
Winnie Wood
Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
``One of my frustrations is I really don't know the way to empower
women,'' says Winnie Wood. ``. . . I hate to see people feel that
there's nothing they can do. I think that's a real tragedy.''
WINIFRED J. WOOD
Born: Sept. 17, 1928, in South Carolina. Raised in Elizabeth
City.
Education: Graduated from Elizabeth City High School in 1945.
Received bachelor's degree in sociology from College of William and
Mary in 1949. Did graduate work in religion and education.
Business: Vice president of F.P. Wood and Son Inc., grain dealers
in Camden. Secretary-treasurer of Astro Inc.
State involvement: Member of the State Board of Community
Colleges, the Agriculture Safety Commission and the Women's Forum of
North Carolina. Past member of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation's
State Advisory Panel, the Board of Advisors of the School of Social
Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the North
Carolina Institute of Medicine Board of Directors and the North
Carolina Democratic Party Executive Committee.
Local involvement: Chairwoman of the Northeastern Education and
Development Foundation Board of Directors; member of the College of
The Albemarle Foundation, the Wachovia Bank Board of Directors and
Rotary. Past president of the Pasquotank Arts Council, past member
of the Elizabeth City Habitat For Humanity Board of Directors and
past member of the Albemarle Hopeline Board of Advisors.
Family: Late husband, George M. Wood, served 10 years in the
North Carolina General Assembly. Wood has five children and nine
grandchildren.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB