| Reverend William Hervey
Woods, M. M.
Class of 1949
Born
September 14, 1931. Attended St. Vincent de Paul School; graduated
1949 From St. Thomas High School; four years at Maryknoll College,
Glenn Ellen, Illinois; Novitiate at Bedford, Massachusetts, 1953;
seminary training 1954-58, Maryknoll, New York; ordained June 14,
1958; spent entire priestly life of eighteen years as missionary to
Guatemala, 1958 - 1976. Language school Huehuetenango; assistant pastor
of Barillas; built church, dispensary, clinic; trained catechists,
set up radio network and established Co-op Malin; learned to fly in
1968 in order to direct the Ixcan Jungle Resettlement Project; Indians
began to own land through formation of fine co-operatives; 2,000 families
relocated and benefitted; schools established; five air fields built;
400 square kilometers of jungle converted into productive land; and
1,000 head of cattle raised.
Bill Woods, 'Padre Guillermo', died in a plane crash on November
20, 1976, while flying volunteers and supplies into the Ixcan.
Father Woods was inducted posthumously into the Hall of Honor of
St. Thomas High School on April 13, 1980.
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