Col. Whit Woodard, a chaplain endorsed by Regular Baptist Chaplaincy, died Dec. 14.
After graduating from high school, Whit joined the Air Force, serving until he was 21. He trusted Christ as his Savior through the ministry of First Baptist Church of Eastgate, Bellevue, Washington, and then attended Western Baptist Bible College (now Corban University) beginning in 1961. While attending the school, he worked as a police officer in Richmond, California.
Ordained in 1966, Whit served as a church-planting missionary with the Fellowship of Baptists for Home Missions. Then he joined the Civil Air Patrol as a chaplain, serving from 1967 to ’73 and 1996 until he retired in 2019. During those years he was promoted to the rank of colonel in 2008 and served as CAP’s chief of chaplains from 2008 to 2011.
Upon completion of his tour as chief of chaplains, he became CAP’s chief emeritus and continued to volunteer as a chaplain to the 328th Combat Support Hospital of the U.S. Army Active Reserve; the Army Active Reserve Signal Corps High Tech Training Facility at B. T. Collins Army Reserve Center in Sacramento, California; and Travis Air Force Base.
In addition to his ministry with CAP, Whit was elected to serve a three-year term on the executive committee of the Military Chaplains Association of the USA, served as a council member for the California Association of Regular Baptist Churches and Northern California Association of Regular Baptist Churches, completed MDiv and DMin degrees from Great Plains Baptist Divinity School, and wrote Ministry of Presence: Biblical Insight on Christian Chaplaincy.
He also served for 18 years as a volunteer law enforcement chaplain in Rocklin, California. He founded the Rocklin Police Department’s chaplaincy program in 2005 and eventually became a training officer, deputy senior chaplain, and then senior chaplain.
In May 2018 the Rocklin Police Department awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award for volunteering over 4,000 hours. And in 2013 he was awarded the G. William Dando Volunteer Service award from the Military Chaplains Association in an annual presentation to honor chaplains with exemplary volunteer service.
In retirement, Whit and his wife, Lt. Col. Nancy Woodard, were members of Tri County Baptist Church, Lady Lake, Florida. Nancy preceded Whit in death on February 9, 2023, after 37 years of marriage. For many years Nancy served with Whit in the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol, where she was appointed a moral leadership officer and character development instructor in the cadet program.
Whit and Nancy are survived by four children: Timothy Woodard, John Woodard, Julaine Beatty, and Joel Beatty.
