Bill Brewster had a sense of humor and a soft side, but when he was president of Georgia Military Academy, and later Woodward Academy, the students likely didn’t know it.
“He had a wonderful sense of adventure, too,” said his wife, Helon W. Woodward Brewster, of Alpharetta. “But he was the disciplinarian at the school and he was very firm and formal there.”
Mr. Brewster, who graduated from the Naval Academy and retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of captain, saw both schools through important transitions, said Ben F. Johnson, chairman of the governing board at Woodward.
“He could see that Georgia Military Academy would not make it if it stayed an all-white, all-male, military school,” Mr. Johnson said. “He knew there had to be change.”
Mr. Brewster saw the military academy thorough its transition into Woodward and then ushered the new school through the acceptance of young women and racial integration.
“He was a major part of the school’s history,” Mr. Johnson said.
William Roe Brewster Jr., of Alpharetta, died Aug. 26 at Fountain View Center in Atlanta from natural causes. He was 90. A memorial service is planned for 11 a.m., Oct. 13, in the chapel at Woodward Academy. Carmichael-Hemperley Funeral Home and Crematory, Peachtree City, handled the cremation.
Mr. Brewster spent his career as an educator, first as a science and math teacher, and then on to administration. He became president of the Military Academy in 1959, and even after he retired from Woodward in 1979, he was pressed into service to help two other schools that were in transition, said his daughter Susan Patterson.
In 2001, Mr. Brewster buried his wife of 57 years, Kathryn Cummings Brewster. And as grieved as he was over the loss of his wife, he told his daughter he still had a lot of living to do. So at the ripe young age of 82, he married Helon W. Woodward, who’d also buried a beloved spouse.
“I was 78 then,” she said, her voice bright with laughter. “I’ll never forget, he called and asked me, ‘Helon, what are you doing with the rest of your life?’ and I said, ‘traveling.’”
The couple married in 2002 and spent their honeymoon in Scotland. They traveled until Mr. Brewster’s health no longer allowed.
“We had some very good times,” she said. “He was a wonderful man, who was wonderful to his family.”
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by two additional daughters, Kathryn L. Brewster of Alpharetta, and Diane Brewster of Brunswick; sister, Lucile B. Harder of St. Louis, Mo.; four granddaughters, two great-grandchildren.
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