As the nation emerged from the Great Depression and the economic expansion of the 1940s took hold, Walter A. Woodard (W.A.) was in a position to look beyond day-to-day operations of the W.A. Woodard Lumber Company and focus more on the civic needs of the community. Utilizing company resources, he purchased land, built a new library and gifted it to the City of Cottage Grove in a ceremony attended by Oregon Governor McKay. Read more about the library (link to library section). W.A.’s wife, Dutee, a University of Oregon graduate and prolific reader, was the driving force behind the new library, viewing it as an excellent opportunity to foster literacy while supporting growth of the cultural assets in the community.

The following year, W.A. again made a substantial gift from the company toward construction of a new hospital for Cottage Grove. Read more about the hospital.

The idea of a charitable foundation evolved as a result of the first two corporate gifts, $55,000 for the library in 1950 and $70,000 for the hospital in 1951. W.A. made a corporate gift of $25,000 and incorporated the W.A. Woodard Foundation in 1952 with the intention to carry forth philanthropy both in good and bad economic times.

Founding directors were W.A., Mrs. Woodard, their sons, Carlton and Alton and Paul Thompson, an associate from the Michigan firm that helped launch the W.A. Woodard Lumber Company. The directors agreed that funds were to be used “exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific or educational purposes for the communities of Cottage Grove and Lane County.” Their first meeting took place on April 28, 1952. W.A. was elected President, Mrs. Woodard was elected Vice President, and Carlton was elected Secretary-Treasurer.

On June 8, 1954, the Foundation directors unanimously voted to make the first official grant: a gift of $5,000 to the Oregon Trail Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Other early donations were to United Way of Lane County, March of Dimes, YMCA and the Western Oregon Exposition, to focus on civic and education projects benefiting the youth of South Lane County.

In the 1960s, the Foundation made up to five small grants a year, totaling just a few thousand dollars. But as the investment portfolio grew, so too did the size and number of grants. By the mid-1970s, the W.A. Woodard Foundation was giving several dozen grants per year, between $20,000 and $30,000 each. This pattern of growth steadily continued in the decades that followed.

Upon its 57th anniversary, in 2009, the Foundation had made 2,480 grants totaling $6.5 million and the corpus had grown to a high of $17 million. This is a remarkable legacy of the Woodard Lumber Company, its founder, and the many men and women who helped it become a success. The now renamed Woodard Family Foundation is today the eighth oldest family foundation in Oregon, proudly involving the fifth generation.