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.