“I met Bob Woodson and he changed my life.”

Reflections on the passing of Bob Woodson, a national treasure and a dear friend, by Beth Feeley

“I met Bob Woodson and he changed my life.”

I have lost count of how many times I have heard that phrase. It’s usually from an ex-gang member who now mentors youth in the inner city or a former drug addict who now helps others stay clean. Those are just two examples. There are thousands of others.

Robert L. “Bob” Woodson Sr., civil rights movement giant and founder and president of the Woodson Center, passed away this past week at the age of 89. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Fox News each published tributes, so I’ll let those fill you in on his life achievements in the civil rights movement and subsequent work in neighborhood empowerment.

Bob Woodson and I first connected when I reached out to him to see if he’d consider being a badly-needed speaker addition to New Trier High School’s infamous Seminar Day, the controversial day of mandatory DEI-inspired workshops that the school ran in 2017. Bob Woodson’s voice was exactly what was missing. If New Trier had been interested in hosting him, he said he’d have gladly come.

Unfortunately, New Trier students missed out on the profound wisdom of this civil rights movement veteran who spent his entire adult life helping the least of these among us, as the school did not include voices like his that could have addressed the lack of balance in Seminar Day.

About an hour after learning he had passed away, I wanted to hear his voice so I listened to the audio version of Woodson’s book Lessons from the Least of These. This book is my favorite of his and best captures his philosophy about neighborhood transformation.

Bob Woodson’s theory? That people struggling in low-income neighborhoods could be agents of their own uplift. Big-government, top-down programs brought in by outsiders do not work. Smaller, neighborhood-led initiatives based on principles that encourage accountability for one’s actions and self-determination do. And he had evidence from his decades of working with various community leaders to prove it. For decades, he has consistently spread his message with a unique combination of conviction and humility.

That first call with Bob nearly ten years ago sparked a professional collaboration and a cherished friendship in the years that followed that changed my life – all for the better. Since then, I have had the honor of working with him, including helping him launch the 1776 Unites initiative, and along the way meeting inspiring grassroots leaders from across the country, scholars who wrote for 1776 Unites and countless others, so many of whom I now call friends.

Bob was the OG of hope. He was the type of man you just wanted to be around and soak up his authentic agape love for others. You always had a better outlook on the world after talking with him. Do a search and read his work or listen to interviews. You’ll understand.

He is no longer available to come speak at New Trier or any other institution and that brings me to tears. But his work and legacy lives on through the Woodson Center, through the countless articles and books which record his humble genius (here is his most recent Wall Street Journal op ed and a program he recently did with students in the South Bronx), and through his beautiful family who generously shared him with the rest of the world for so many years.

Based on the tens of thousands of social media posts out there and the condolences pouring into my inbox, so many were as deeply impacted as I was by him and his life’s work.

And now I am going to go listen to “Lessons from the Least of These” because I am missing him all over again.

Beth Feeley is a co-founder of New Trier Neighbors and its predecessor Parents of New Trier, a group of parents that organized to add balance to New Trier’s 2017 Seminar Day.

Beth Feeley and Bob Woodson, 2024