Melvin C. Woods Sr., 86, was born March 12, 1934, in Rocky Mount to Mary Carlie Stone Woods and Roy Benjamin Woods. He earned his wings Thursday, March 12, 2020, at his home surrounded by his wife, son and daughters, in Williamsburg.
Melvin was born into a large family of eight boys and three girls. In a time when it was frowned upon for people of color to be educated, “Mom Carlie,” a former school teacher, ensured that all the Woods siblings started school knowing how to read and write. At a very young age, he joined Holy Trinity Baptist Church. Melvin graduated from Lee M. Wade High School in 1951 and drove the school bus for a short time afterward before leaving home to join the U.S. Air Force. He served his country from 1954 to 1958 and received the Army Occupation Medal (Germany) and a Good Conduct Medal.
Once Melvin returned from overseas with the military, he traveled the country with his brothers for a while seeing this great nation. During the 1960s, he attended barber school in New York, worked moving furniture in Ohio, operated forklifts and large machinery in California and worked at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C.
Melvin arrived in Williamsburg 46 years ago, in 1974, to visit his sister, Mrs. Rubena Wilson, who was a school teacher at Bruton Heights, and never left. He met her neighbors, Helen and Bubba Tucker, Ernestine and Eddie Givens, Pauline and Lewis Washington, made many friends and soon felt “right at home.”
Rubena’s husband died and Melvin found himself being a “father figure” to her adopted children, Jackie and Johnnie Wilson. It was also during this time that Melvin began his employment at the College of William & Mary. He worked his way up through the ranks of laboratory instrument maker in the Physics Department and was soon known as the resident subject matter expert at the College of William & Mary and Jefferson Lab in Newport News. The professors and students soon came to him first for any special projects, knowing that it would be done “right the first time.” He loved his job and ended up retiring from the College of William & Mary in 2003 after 32 years of dedication to the Physics Department and many special projects at Jefferson Lab.
In 1976, he married the love of his life, Ethel Frazier, and shortly thereafter bought his sister, Rubena’s house when she moved back home to Rocky Mount. Melvin became a father to Michelle “Paige,” Nicole “Nicky,” and Melvin Jr. “Sporty.” He provided a spiritual and loving home for his family and left a legacy for which we can all be proud.
He loved the Lord, family and friends and often said, “I would not feel right if someone needed assistance and I didn’t try to help them.”
He was preceded in death by his parents, seven brothers and two sisters. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Ethel Woods; daughters, Michelle Edwards of Williamsburg and Nicole Woods, of Occoquan; son, Melvin Woods Jr. of Williamsburg; three grandchildren, Damon Edwards Jr. of Germantown, Maryland, Christyn Edwards, of Charlottesville and Alyssa Warren, of Occoquan; sister, Shirley Joe of Richmond; very special sister-in-law, Christa Woods of Hampton; many nieces and nephews who he loved as if they were his own; that adoration may have made him their “favorite uncle”; and a host of other loving relatives and friends.
A service to celebrate Melvin’s life will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 21, at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Williamsburg. Interment will follow in Cedar Grove Cemetery. Family and friends are to assemble at the church by 10:30 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Melvin Woods Cancer Memorial Fund.
Share online condolences with the family at Whiting’s Funeral Home.
