Robert E. Woodward, who prosecuted criminals as the top U.S. law enforcement officer in Sacramento and helped debtors restore their credit and self-esteem as an innovative bankruptcy judge, died Friday at age 94.
The cause was a heart attack, said his son Gary.
A former deputy district attorney, Mr. Woodward joined the assistant U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento in 1953 and was placed in charge several months later. He was responsible for the prosecution of all federal cases and lost only a handful of the hundreds he tried himself, said another son, Bruce.
In 1964, Mr. Woodward was appointed federal bankruptcy judge in Sacramento. Using a minor bankruptcy code provision, Chapter 13, he encouraged individuals seeking to have the slate wiped clean under Chapter 7 instead to work out a plan with a court-appointed trustee to repay their debts.
The program became a national model for Chapter 13 cases, with one of the country's highest success rates for repayment of un- secured debt, bankruptcy court clerk Richard Heltzel said.
Meanwhile, his family said, Mr. Woodward received letters from hundreds of petitioners thanking him for helping them to overcome the stigma of bankruptcy and get back on their feet.
"My dad ran his court with a tremendous amount of dignity," Gary Woodward said. "It was his contention that if debtors were to pay off the debt, it would be the right thing to do, and it also would give them back their dignity."
Mr. Woodward was the first U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Eastern District of California, which was created in 1966. He was named chief judge in 1979 and retired in 1986.
Robert Elmer Woodward was born in 1914 in Weston County, Wyo., and spent his early years in Lead, S.D. He was one of six children reared by their father, Avery, a gold mine assayer, and mother, Grace, a homemaker.
His family moved to San Diego to aid his recovery from rheumatic fever and tuberculosis. Mr. Woodward earned a bachelor's degree from San Diego State University and graduated from the University of California's Hastings College of the Law in 1941.
He clerked for a San Francisco federal judge, married Elizabeth Newell and moved to Sacramento.
He worked as a Sacramento County prosecutor, a private attorney and a court-appointed special master for Yuba County flooding claims before joining the assistant U.S. attorney's office.
Mr. Woodward was an active volunteer at Sierra Arden Church of Christ and a charter member and past-president of the Arden Lions Club.
He was president of Rio Americano High School Parents Club and reared three sons with his wife, who died in 2000.
He collected antique Fords and was proud to still own and drive his first new car, a 1941 Ford Super Deluxe. He belonged to the Sacramento Early Ford V-8 Club and loved watching auto racing and restoring cars with his sons.
"That's one of the things that kept us together," Gary Woodward said. "He was a real nuts-and-bolts guy."
Call The Bee's Robert D. Dávila, (916) 321-1077.
