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Rev. James A. Woods, SJ, Boston College’s longest-serving dean and namesake of the University’s Woods College of Advancing Studies, has announced his plans to step down from the leadership post he has held in the school since 1968.
“I have turned 80 and I’m in my 44th year in this job. It seems pretty reasonable,” said Fr. Woods, who will continue to serve as WCAS dean until a successor is named. “I am very, very grateful to my superiors – both Boston College and the Jesuits. It’s an honor that I have been assigned to do this and allowed to stay this many years.”
"Fr. Woods has had an immense impact on the Boston College community during his many years here, both as an educator and as Jesuit priest,” said University President William P. Leahy, SJ. “Thousands of individuals have benefited from his compassion, encouragement, and pastoral care. He enabled so many to realize their educational and career dreams by earning degrees at BC and on behalf of all of us, I thank him for his boundless energy and wholehearted commitment to advancing the mission of Boston College.”
During his tenure, Fr. Woods has overseen comprehensive changes in the curricula at Boston College and designed and introduced a graduate degree program for part-time students. At his request, the name of the Evening College was changed in 1996 to the College of Advancing Studies to reflect the college’s evolving mission.
In May of 2002, the name of the college was formally changed to the Woods College of Advancing Studies following a gift from Katharine B. and Robert M. Devlin that symbolized their high regard for Boston College and the unparalleled dedication of Fr. Woods, who had been a mentor to two generations of the Devlin family.
Three generations of students have graduated from the College of Advancing Studies since Fr. Woods accepted leadership of the college in April of 1968, the majority of them part-time students who worked steadily toward degrees while balancing the parallel responsibilities of work and families. Each student has received the personal counseling, mentoring and encouragement of Fr. Woods and his staff.
Fr. Woods initiated a practice of writing letters to students and faculty several times a year.
“We are sending a message,” he said, “and it’s not about money or anything like that. It’s about succeeding. Each letter talks about every subject imaginable that I think would be helpful to people at the moment.”
A native of Dorchester’s Neponset neighborhood, and a graduate of both Boston College High School and Boston College, Fr. Woods says the existence of a College of Advancing Studies helps fulfill the University’s educational and service mission in the Boston area.
“There is no one in my office that has not given me their all,” he said. “And the faculty is the same way. They have given me their lives and they have given the students their lives. Their goal is to help, to serve, to serve God, to serve neighbors, to serve community, to serve Boston.
“Advancing Studies is fulfilling a covenant made many years ago by Boston College to be here. I am so grateful to have been a part of this for so many years and I am going to continue to be a part.”
Fr. Woods established numerous scholarship and endowment funds over the years, naming them in honor of his longest-serving faculty and staff. “When these scholarships are awarded each year,” he said, “it is wonderful that the recipients actually know the person who is helping them.”
Fr. Woods joined the Society of Jesus shortly after graduating from BC High in 1948. “I was interviewed to join the Jesuits at the exact location where my office is today,” he says, noting that there was a temporary Army barracks on the current site of McGuinn Hall at the time. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from BC – later adding a doctorate in education from Boston University – before launching his own teaching career at the former Jesuit-run Cranwell School in Lenox, Mass. in 1955. In 1958, he returned to Chestnut Hill as registrar of the School of Liberal Studies, the School of Philosophy and the School of Theology.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1961, he served as provincial secretary of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus, where he was extensively involved in the recruitment and admission of candidates to the Jesuit order, from 1962 until returning to Boston College as dean of the Evening College six years later.
During his long term of service to the University, Fr. Woods has witnessed monumental growth in the University’s scope and stature.
“I didn’t watch it,” he chuckled. “I took part in it.”
What’s ahead for this energetic and admired campus figure?
“I’m not retiring from Boston College, not at all. Just from this job,” Fr. Woods added with his familiar hearty laugh. “I just had a wonderful report from my primary physician. I’ve got 15 more years to go – at least!”