Making a Gift for Today and Tomorrow

Louise Woodruff and her husband, Rev. Laurence Woodruff.

Louse Woodruff encountered the United Board at a young age, she recalls, because “my father always talked about his work at the dinner table.” Her parents, Dr. and Mrs. John Coventry Smith, were missionaries in Japan before World War II, and later helped Japanese Christians establish International Christian University (ICU) in 1949.

Mrs. Woodruff was a young girl when she left Japan in 1941 but feels those year years truly broadened her world view. Her global perspective influenced her many years of work with the International Student Office at Eastern Michigan University, connecting international students with local school children, community organizations, and dinners with local families.

“Peacemaking has been an important emphasis in my life,” Mrs. Woodruff finds, in part because of her experience of World War II. She shares the United Board’s interest in helping universities bring people with differing views together. “Education helps to sort through conflict and deal with it personally,” she said, “so I want to support what the United Board is doing.”

“During my father’s years as General Secretary for the mission work of the Presbyterian Church (USA), he became familiar with other Christian universities in Asia and supported the United Board. After his death I wanted to continue that support, and by the grace of God we have been able to do that.”

The United Board is thankful for Mrs. Woodruff’s continuing support through annual gifts and joining the United Board’s Legacy Society by making a planned gift, thereby ensuring that her gifts have a deep impact – both today and tomorrow.

(First published in Horizons in August 2014)