PEOPLE OF THE WHITES: Rodney Dallas Woodard (1905-1976) – by Frances Woodard Richardson

Frances Richardson has contributed many profiles to Mountain Passages of the people who made New Hampshire. 

Rodney Dallas Woodard – courtesy of F. Richardson

Rodney (“Rod”) Dallas Woodard, born on April 18, 1905, was the second son of Charles Franklin Woodard (1882-1960) and Eva Viola (Reynolds) Woodard (1880-1974) of Brockton, MA. Charles was a designer and model maker of men’s lasts at the Woodard and Wright Shoe Factory in East Bridgewater, MA. (A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes.) Rodney would apprentice in the shop where he developed a love for wood.

Rodney entered Brockton High School on September 7, 1921, and studied Mechanical Drawing. He transferred to Wentworth Institute in Boston, MA to study machine work and pattern design graduating in 1925.

In 1926-27, he was hired as an experimental designer for the Darlo Company of Boston, MA to invent a faucet dishwasher and soap dispenser. In 1928 he worked as a draftsman for the design and construction of a Dairy Cooler for the Emerson and Mason Refrigeration Engineers.

In 1924, Rodney, Ned Whitmore, and Bob Jackson made their first trip to the White Mountains (see Rod’s log in MOUNTAIN PASSAGES, Vol.47 Number 4, Winter 2021, pages 8, 9, and 11). Rod returned to the mountains in 1926 as a hutman packing goods to the Lake of the Clouds Hut. Since he couldn’t carry heavy loads, Joe Dodge suggested that he cook at Madison Spring Hut. He worked at that hut from 1928 to 1931, becoming the Hut Master. He still needed to pack some goods, like gasoline and klim ( dried milk), so when he returned to Brockton in the winter, he invented the “Freighter”, a wooden pack board that fit the back. It was first used by the Hutmen in 1931 and was sold to the government for use by the Forest Service. He also copyrighted the process of using plasticine proforma to form relief maps. He poured Plaster of Paris over the clay forms to make negative molds for bronze models. Celluloid was poured over the models to make the pocket-size relief maps of Crawford Notch, Franconia Notch, and the White Mountain Region. Today, copies can still be found in private collections.

To get to the Pinkham Notch Hut. In April or May was a bit of an ordeal in those days. The road was not plowed so he took the train to Portland, ME then on to Gorham, NH. From there he took a sled to the Glen House and snowshoed from there to the Pinkham Notch Hut.

From 1932 to 1936. Rodney became the Assistant Hut Manager to Joe Dodge. His main duty was to make monthly inspections of all the huts. After an unfortunate disagreement with Joe Dodge, Rodney and his wife, Leta (Church) whom he married on September 10, 1936, left and moved to Jackson, NH in January 1937. A year later they bought the guest house on the Bigelow-Merriman Estate (now Stonehurst) in Intervale, NH. There Rodney established his woodworking and machine shop, THE ARTISAN SHOP. He became a renowned designer craftsman creating custom-made items of fine art, his own tools and machinery, cabinet work, ski trophies, and commemoration plaques. (One for “Ted” Fuller acan e seen at the Lake of the Clouds. Ted [Edward Kidder Fuller] was the Hut Master at the Lake of the Clouds in 1943. He was killed in Germany in 1944 while serving in the US 95th Infantry Division. In his memory his family donated his Life Insurance to the Lake of the Clouds Hut.)

Rodney was the Chairman of the Council of the North Conway League of NH Craftsmen for twenty-five years and sold some of his carved items there. A carving of a Barred Owl is in the permanent collection at the Headquarters of the League in Concord, NH.

Rod gave woodworking classes through the CARY (Crafts for Retirement Years) program in Berlin and Wolfeboro, NH, and in his own shop.

He made gavels for the 1944 International Monetary Fund Conference held in Bretton Woods. The wooden gavels were made from cherry trees cut from the grounds of the Mount Washington Hotel and were the official American gift to the leader of each delegation.

In 1947, Raymond Loud of Kearsarge, NH, and Rodney invented and manufactured the TETRATOOL, a machine with a circular saw, a lathe, and a drill press. In 1967 Rodney carved “the World’s largest salad bowl” from a 200-pound birch burl.

Rodney helped design surgical tools for Dr. George Harold Shedd, lead surgeon at the North Conway Memorial Hospital. He was noted for his expertise in operations on legs broken in skiing accidents. Rod also made the Crucifix for the St. Andrews Episcopal Church in New London, NH, the cross for the facade for the Reverence for Life Building at the First Church of Christ Congregational, in North Conway, NH, and a bas-relief plaque of Aesop’s Tortoise and the Hare for the children’s room at the Conway Public Library, Conway, NH. 

Rod made picture frames for local artists and special frames for Karl Drerup, a world-famous enamelist of Campton, NH, and for himself, a Sunday painter following a family tradition of his father, Charles, and his artist brother, Leroy (see MOUNTAIN PASSAGES Vol. 49, Number 4 Winter 2023-24 page 13.)

Rodney D. Woodard passed away on October 29, 1976, and is buried in the North Conway Cemetery. Rodney kept lifelong friendships with people he met through the AMC and in April 1976, the AMC recognized his contribution with a life membership.  Rodney’s daughters survive him.

Design of backboard still used today to haul supplies to AMC huts – courtesy of F. Richardson