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Tribute to Woody Powell 1932-2025

By Art Dorland and Joan Powell

Attention all who knew him: Ancient Warrior for justice and peace among men has sailed his craft over the horizon and into the warmth of a setting sun. Bonne nuit, voyageur.

Wilson Marcy Powell IV, aka "Woody," passed away on November 23, 2025, peacefully and at home. He was 93 years old.

Woody had an interesting life. He was raised in the Quaker faith, whose famous principles shaped much of his long and meaningful days. Conversely, in the confusion of youth, he became an Air Force soldier in Korea during that awful conflict, assigned to a security canine unit, where he acquired a lifelong love of dogs, as evidenced in the poem below. For a time, Woody strayed in, out of, and among those same Quaker principals, surely not the first or last peacemaker to do so.

During his tour in Korea, Woody founded a Korean children's orphanage, which later became a state-owned institution. This was an early expression of the humanitarian values that would define his life and his life's work. He later established the St. Louis, Missouri, Veterans Drug Court and the Veterans Court Technology Clinic, the latter providing homeless and at-risk vets with computer literacy training and employment assistance.

After discharge in 1954, Woody attended UC Berkeley on the GI Bill. He later made his way into the publishing world and international business. During a trip to China in 1983, he met, entirely by chance, Ming Fu, a fellow Korean veteran, but from the other side. They developed a meaningful lifelong friendship around their shared wartime experiences that became the subject of a book they wrote together, Two Walk the Golden Road. Woody's reflections also appear in Michael Messner's book, Guys Like Me, which examines the lives of veterans across multiple generations.

While Woody never joined VVAW, thinking it would not be altogether appropriate, as his service was long over before Vietnam hit—that's how painstakingly honest he was—yet many VVAW people will remember him. From 2001-2006, he served as Executive Director of Veterans For Peace and worked closely with Dave Cline, expanding the membership to over 7,000. He also facilitated the VFP headquarters' move to St Louis. VFP and VVAW are in harness together, pulling in the same direction, and surely have many overlapping memberships.

Woody is survived by his wife of 67 years, artist and veteran supporter Joan Anita Powell, along with four children and their children. The red blood is still moving, upward and out.

The Veteran has published several of Woody's anti-war poems. Vietnam guys can read and appreciate the following verses, as their own fragile crafts sail west to the sinking sun.

Art Dorland was in the US Navy 1964-1967. He reached the giddy heights of E-4 at US Naval Support Activity Saigon, 1966-67. This tribute was written in collaboration with Joan Powell, Woody's widow.