Grampa Woody

Grampa's funeral was today. Above is a better picture than the blurry one I first posted. His official obit from the paper out in California:

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Snodgrass, a former West County school district superintendent, board member and lifelong educational devotee, has died at age 95.

Snodgrass, who died Jan. 25, began working for the Richmond Unified (now West Contra Costa) School District in 1937 after graduating from Richmond High. He served as a teacher, counselor, dean of boys, director of adult education, principal, deputy superintendent, superintendent and board member.

"I'm deeply saddened by the loss of Woody," longtime school board member Charles Ramsey said. "He really motivated me and taught me how to think big. He was really special to me and my family."

Including his years as a student, Snodgrass had an 80-year association with the district that began when Calvin Coolidge was in the White House.

West Contra Costa school district officials — who named their administration building on Bissell Avenue after Snodgrass in 2005 — honored him with a moment of silence at Wednesday's board meeting.

Snodgrass' lifelong devotion to education almost didn't happen. He was in his second year at law school when he ran into Frank Shallenberger, his principal at Roosevelt Junior High School in Richmond.

"Why don't you think about becoming a teacher?" Shallenberger asked him.

"Becoming an educator "was my second choice," Snodgrass said in 2005. "But that's how it happened."

Snodgrass earned his teaching credential from UC Berkeley in 1936, got his master's degree in education in 1950 and his doctorate in 1956.

He retired after eight years as superintendent (1969-76), but his involvement with the district continued. For 12 years, he was chief contract negotiator (1977-89), then served two terms on the school board (1989-97). He was named chairman of the Citizen's Advisory Commission for District School Facilities in 1998.

Snodgrass was born June 24, 1913, in Blackfoot, Idaho. When his family moved to Richmond in 1925, Snodgrass — the youngest of three siblings — enrolled in sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary School. He later attended the now-closed Roosevelt Junior High, and lettered in track and played football at Richmond High.

Snodgrass taught at Roosevelt and in 1941 joined the faculty at the new high school that opened in El Cerrito just months before the United States entered World War II. During the war he served for two years as a civilian instructor for the Army in Washington, D.C., then returned to become a counselor and dean of boys at El Cerrito High. He became the school's vice principal in 1947.

Snodgrass had been married twice (Julia, his wife of 24 years, and Eleanor, 18 years, are both deceased) and had two adopted children.

"I liked working with the kids," he said in 2005. "I liked working with the teachers. I liked working with the principals. I liked working with the administrators. I liked working with the financial end. To me, it was all rewarding."