Former VC, Dr David Woods and his wife Charlotte, will be leaving Grahamstown to start a new chapter in their lives in “a lovely little house in Camps Bay”.
Former VC, Dr David Woods and his wife Charlotte, will be leaving Grahamstown to start a new chapter in their lives in “a lovely little house in Camps Bay”.
Woods spent 16 years in Cape Town where he was Professor and Head of Department of Micro biology. After a series of promotions he was made Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UCT in 1988. Woods looks forward to returning to Cape Town. “We have lots of friends there, so it will be like going home.
“Grahamstown is also a lovely place, but it’s too small for me and if I stay here I would only meddle, so a clean break is in the best interest for verybody. Rhodes is so all-consuming in Grahamstown, you can’t get away from it.”
Woods thinks the town is special with an incredibly high quality of life. “It’s not like a dorp in rural Eastern Cape.” Woods has had three stints at Rhodes and cannot seem to stop returning to this establishment. He and his wife plan to visit fairly regularly, as they have a cottage in Kenton. Dr Woods was here first as a student, which was how he met Charlotte. He then moved on to lecturing and finally he was to come back as Vice-Chancellor.
Woods said that “it was a low point when the East London campus closed down. The three years when the Government was deciding what the future of South African Universities would be was also not easy. “There was great danger that Rhodes could have disappeared and we would have lost an incredibly good brand name.”
Another difficult period was in 2004 when Woods fell ill. He has, however, made a full recovery and keeps up his healthy and active lifestyle.
“It was a bizarre set of illnesses, but now I am absolutely fine and I am still playing squash.” He has also kept his membership at the Western Province Cricket Club and will continue playing in Cape Town. While Woods continues life on the squash court, he leaves Rhodes in capable hands.
The new VC “is a very good guy and I am very pleased that somebody of his calibre is going to be my successor”. The number of top quality people that applied for the post is an indicator of the standing of Rhodes.
“Professor Saleem Badat is an excellent scholar with a high understanding of higher education. He has good contacts nationally and I think Rhodes is set for a very bright future.”
Woods’s future includes joining a biotechnology company that was started by a former Rhodes lecturer, Winston Leukes, who recently passed away.
He will also continue his membership of a n umber of foundations such as the South African Society for Biochemistry and the Trustee Claude Leon Foundation.
Woods is also the chair of the South African Netherlands Research Programme, so he will be travelling to the land of Rembrandt and Van Gogh fairly regularly. A more social travel plan will be to visit his daughter Kath, who lives in Canada.
“I hav e got some exciting things to do when I am gone and I think we will be very happy. We aren’t going to sit somewhere and mope for six months, but rather get on with the next stage.
“I have had 10 years here but now it’s time to go.”
