Legend - Bruce Woodard

HONOREE MADE LASTING IMPACT ON JOHNSTON COUNTY

By Randy Capps

When Bruce Woodard was told he was being honored with the 2019 Johnston Now Honors Legend award, he took it very much in stride.

“I'm of the age, most everything I've done has been years ago,” he said. “I guess a legend is supposed to be old.”

While it's true that many of his accomplishments happened a while ago, the impact of his efforts are still felt on a daily basis around the county.

Many of those deeds are focused on agriculture, and Woodard developed an appreciation for it at an early age on his family's farm in the Gold Valley community of Nash County.

“My father was one of the most diversified farmers in the county,” he said. “We had a peach orchard, we had an apple orchard, we grew tobacco, small grains and corn. My daddy was one of the first farmers to grow hybrid seed corn.”

That led him to N.C. State, where he studied animal husbandry and minored in forestry. He graduated in 1953 and joined the Cooperative Extension Service in Lenoir County. He worked in Northampton, Wake and Cumberland counties before coming to Johnston County in 1976.

It worked out well, because it was about 50 miles closer to his family farm in Nash County, and his wife Annie's, family farm across the river in Franklin County. Both farms were being run by their mothers by that time.

During his 10 years at the helm of the Johnston County Cooperative Extension, he helped form the county planning department, founded the Johnston County Agribusiness Council and helped organize Keep Johnston County Beautiful.

He was also instrumental in getting the Johnston County Livestock Arena built.

“We've got one of the best livestock arenas in the state,” he said. “Norman Denning was the chairman of the county commissioners. He was a big hog producer. And Frank Holding was on the board, Howard Benton, from Benson, too. But Norman, primarily, really pushed that. We got money appropriated by the county to build a livestock arena.”

He also worked to increase county tourism, planting the seeds for the modern tourism authority and organizing events like the Smithfield Ham and Yam Festival.

He even helped convince the phone

company to stop charging long distance for phone calls between Smithfield and Benson.

“You can call anywhere now, but when I moved to Johnston County, it was a long distance call, as best I can recall, to call from Smithfield to Benson,” he said. “And I think Kenly, and maybe Clayton, too. I contacted the Carolina Telephone Company and talked to them. Then, I wrote a letter and had some other people write letters, and it wasn't long before they changed it.”

In 2008, he and his wife established the Bruce and Annie Woodard 4-H Scholarship Endowment, which provides a $500 scholarship every year for two outstanding 4-H club members in Johnston County.

“It's not as big as I'd like it to be,” he said. “But it's a start.”

He was a member of 4-H as a young man, and he's always appreciated the club's motto, “to make the best better.”

He's a charter member of the Johnston County 4-H Alumni Association, has been inducted in the N.C. 4-H Hall of Fame, is a Nash County 4-H Honor Club Member and has also received the state's 4-H Alumni and Friends Full Circle Award.

Woodard and his wife also sponsor a child for Salvation Army Camp each summer.

In addition, he's a longtime member of Centenary United Methodist Church, and he credits his and his wife's faith for their 68 years of marriage.

“One of my grandsons asked me that question,” Woodard said. “He said, 'Granddad, how did you and Grandma stay together (so long)?' The first thing is you have keep your marriage vows. Then, you have to keep the Ten Commandments. And if you have an argument, try to settle it peaceably.”

During that marriage, he and Annie have had three children, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild (with a second one expected in August).

“(My oldest son) sent me a birthday card,” he said. “He told me how much he loved me and that the reason his sons — he's got four sons, a pair of twins and two others. And they've all finished college and they've all got good jobs and go to church — are like that is because of the influence I had on him.”

That's probably the highest honor a legend can get.

20 | JOHNSTON NOW