Jack Woodard, a veteran Sacramento journalist and publicist who held state government positions in the Reagan and Deukmejian administrations, has died at age 83.
He died Aug. 26 of complications from a stroke he suffered three years ago, said his wife, Shirley.
Mr. Woodard started his news career in 1955 in Stockton. He spent five years as a reporter for radio station KSTN and seven years as a bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers. He also raced a Jaguar C-Type car in amateur competitions and was a past president of the Stockton Sports Car Club.
He wrote short stories and handled public relations for a land developer before joining the Sacramento Union in 1966. As a Capitol reporter and assistant city editor, he was an enthusiastic and demanding journalist who emphasized old-fashioned digging, fact-checking and working sources to get news stories.
"Jack was of the old guard," said Guenther Hofen, who worked in advertising at the Union. "He was a newspaperman's newspaperman."
Mr. Woodard became a spokesman for the state Agriculture and Services Agency in 1972 and was named deputy director by Gov. Ronald Reagan. He started his own public relations firm, JWA Communications, and wrote for many business publications. In 1983, he was appointed deputy director of the state Employment Development Department under Gov. George Deukmejian.
In 1989, he served as the first editor of Comstock's business magazine. Responsible for writing stories and coordinating articles from freelancers, he was instrumental in launching the publication, publisher Winnie Comstock-Carlson said. "Jack was a real trooper," Comstock-Carlson said. "He really wanted this to succeed, and his heart was in it."
John Marvin Woodard was born in 1925 in San Diego. The only child of a Navy physician and a homemaker, he moved as a small boy with his parents to Guam and spent time in Japan, China and Hawaii.
He graduated from high school in Oakland, served in the Navy during World War II and earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of California, Berkeley. He leased property from farmers for advertising billboards before joining the news business. An early marriage ended in divorce, and he married Shirley Morgan in 1958. The couple reared two children.
Mr. Woodard enjoyed telling stories from his days in journalism, politics and public relations. He built and flew Wakefield free-flight airplanes and was a member of the Sierra Eagles and the National Free Flight Society.
"He flew model planes when he was a boy and took it up again when we moved to Sacramento," his wife said. "He loved flying and chasing those planes everywhere. It was just like being a kid again."
Call The Bee's Robert D. Dávila, (916) 321-1077.
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