Milton Henry "Woody" Woodside, Jr. Endowed Scholarship

Milton Henry “Woody” Woodside, Jr., 76, of Brunswick, Georgia, passed away peacefully on April 18, 2024. Born on May 27, 1947, in Durham, North Carolina, he was the son of the late Milton and Nan Woodside.

Woody grew up in Clinton, North Carolina, and was the oldest with 3 sisters and a brother. He was a proud alumnus of Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia, and The Citadel – the Military College of South Carolina (class of 1970), where he served as a Summerall Guard.

Before making his home in Brunswick and the Golden Isles in 1973, Woody lived in Washington D.C., serving on former U.S. Congressman Ronald “Bo” Ginn’s staff and later with U.S. Representative Lindsay Thomas in Georgia. Woody accepted the position of President of the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce in 1985, where he proudly served the Glynn County community and the state of Georgia for thirty-four years until his retirement in May 2019.

The list of community projects with Woody’s fingerprints on them is long. The Sidney Lanier Bridge, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the Brunswick harbor deepening, the Southeast Georgia Health System, the College of Coastal Georgia, the Jekyll Island Foundation, Rotary Club, the Leadership Glynn Program (impacting future community leaders), and Glynn County’s strong tourism industry are among the projects he held dear.

A retired military officer, Woody served honorably for twenty-six years in the U.S. Army and the Georgia Army National Guard. His commitment to community and service was profound and unwavering.

Woody’s list of accomplishments, awards and board memberships was extensive, yet he remained modest, preferring to highlight others and not himself or his own achievements. Despite that modesty, Woody was deeply honored to be recognized by the community he loved. Recognition from the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, Glynn County Bar Association, National Guard Association of the U.S., Georgia Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, the local council of Boy Scouts of America, Georgia Trend magazine’s repeated recognition as a “Notable Georgian,” and the recipient of the Alfred W. Jones award among others, were all near to his heart. Perhaps the late U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson’s words summed Woody up best, during a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate: “A great friend, someone who is always there.”

Despite his career and accolades, Woody’s true joy was the love and laughter he shared with his family. His wife Ellen, his children Mary Gould and Jay, his grandchildren, and his extended family were the most important.