Obituaries

Jerald J. Woody Sr. Community Advocate

Jerald Jerome Woody Sr., 61, who worked as a training specialist for the D.C. government but was better known as a community advocate and organizer of activities for young people, died Sept. 29 of a heart attack at Washington Hospital Center.

Mr. Woody, a lifelong District resident, attended Cardozo High School. He worked as an auto mechanic and later taught mechanics at Lincoln Technical Institute in Columbia. He spent more than a decade as a training specialist, teaching truck drivers, mechanics and workers in the D.C. Department of Public Works until his retirement two years ago.

Mr. Woody had a love of reading and led efforts to promote education for the city's children. He organized summer programs and a community advocacy group for children, and he led field trips for disadvantaged young people to Congress, the White House, the National Zoo and historic monuments.

He was also vice president of the Terrell Junior High School PTA and president of the PTA council that taught organizational skills to PTA officers in the District.

"I'm just an ordinary guy trying to give a little extra for the children," he told The Washington Post in 1995.

Survivors include his wife of 31 years, Barbara Holland Woody of Washington; three children, Jerell Woody-Cobbs, Jerald J. Woody Jr. and Jerad Woody, all of Washington; his mother, Eulalia Woody Bruce of Springfield; a half brother, Wayne Bruce of Lanham; a half sister, Marjory Bruce of Springfield; and two granddaughters.

-- Matt Schudel

Edward A. Robinson Census Bureau Statistician

Edward A. Robinson, 90, a retired statistician with the U.S. Census Bureau, died Oct. 2 at Morningside House of Laurel, an assisted-living facility. He had dementia.

Dr. Robinson spent 30 years at the Census Bureau, retiring in 1984 as a senior industry statistician. He was an economics professor at the University of Maryland from 1948 to 1954 and taught a night class there in economics until the 1980s.