Dr. William E. Woodward

Dr. William Englar Woodward, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist who conducted field studies in cholera and other diarrhea diseases in what is now Bangladesh and other countries, died on November 16 at his Oxford home. He was the son of Theodore E. Woodward, a University of Maryland educator and internationally known expert in infectious diseases and Dr. Celeste Woodward, a Baltimore physician. He was born in Baltimore and grew up in Roland Park. A 1957 graduate of Gilman School, where he was a two-time state wrestling champion, played lacrosse and was a member of the glee club, Dr. Woodward earned a bachelor’s degree in 1961 from Princeton University where he was a member of the wrestling team and glee club. Dr. Woodward earned his medical degree in 1965 from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and completed an internship in internal medicine from Vanderbilt University Hospital, now known as Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN. He next served with the Epidemic Intelligence Service and the National Communicable Disease Center, now the National Centers for Disease Control, of the U.S. Public Health Service. Diarrhea and specifically cholera was a major medical problem in Bangladesh and Dr. Woodward was a member of a team that proved that oral rehydration therapy using water, salt and sugar could bring diarrhea under control. It was first used in a controlled setting and it was his job to take it to the field and prove that it worked. He and his team proved that oral rehydration therapy worked and the treatment has since saved hundreds of thousands of lives. After leaving the Public Health Service Dr. Woodward was a senior assistant resident in Internal medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital and then held a senior residency at what is now the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He also became a co-investigator for the National Institutes of Health-Johns Hopkins Diarrhea Project at Fort Apache Reservation in White River, Arizona, and in 1971 became Assistant and later Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In 1979 he joined the faculty of the University of Texas Medical School in Houston as an Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology. He also served as co-investigator with the Diarrheal Disease Project of the Egypt-United States Joint Working Group on the Subcommittee for Biomedical research. Dr. Woodward was the corporate medical director for McCormack and Co. from 1983 to 1989. He had also been a consultant to St. Agnes Hospital; the World Health Organization; cholera consultant to Liberia and Nigeria; and sanitation and health consultant to the governments of Chile and Brazil. From 1994 until retiring in 2009, Dr. Woodward was associate medical director of Carroll Hospice. During his career he was the author of 55 medical journal articles, nine textbook chapters and 17 abstracts. He is survived by his beloved wife, Ingrid Blanton of Oxford, sons Harris Woodward of Laurel, Lewis Woodward of Annapolis and Mathew Woodward of Bethesda; by daughters Lauren Woodward Stanley of Austin, Tx and Alex Woodward Dildine of Baltimore; and by a step-son, David Blanton of Big Bear, CA.; a sister, Celeste Applefeld of Baltimore, and 15 grandchildren. An earlier marriage to Susan Sampras ended in divorce. Memorial donations may be made in his name to Talbot Hospice or Doctors Without Borders.

Dr. William E. Woodward

June 23, 1939 - November 16, 2019