Horace Wood

The library's executive director asked Horace Wood, a member of the Dyer Library Association Trustees, to give a bit of the history.This interested me because Woody is not a native of Saco.Nevertheless, he began with the history, included some of the early information about the founding of Saco, and talked about the present population and impact on the library.

I believe Woody knows more about Saco's history than most of the natives do.If you ask him a question about city government or the history of the city, he begins to talk without hesitation.While answering your question, he will interject bits of pertinent information that give a greater perspective to the over-all picture.I got to know Woody through my wife, Dolly, when she invited the choir of First Parish Congregational Church to the house for fellowship and a brief rehearsal.He is an imposing figure and easy to notice in a group.He's soft spoken, but when he speaks, his bass voice commands attention.

Woody grew up in Milton, Mass., where his dad grew up; he even had some of the same teachers his father had.In 1939 he got on a train at North Station and for the first time left Massachusetts.He went to Lewiston, where he attended Bates College, majoring in chemistry and minoring in mathematics.World War II was on when Woody graduated from Bates as a research and development chemist, and he joined the Navy.But before reporting, he and Phyllis Hicks, whom he had met at Bates, got married.

The Navy then sent him to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a two-year grad course that he completed in nine months.MIT didn't give degrees to the Navy classes but gave them a Certificate of Completion in Aerological Engineering.With a smile he said, "That's a fancy word for being a weather man or a meteorologist."After he completed those courses, MIT kept him on as an instructor in map analysis and weather forecasting.