Joe Woods

This time of year I like to spend some time thinking about kith or kin who are gone.

Joe Woods came from a family of interest. His father, also Joseph Woods, was a former FBI agent who served as the Sheriff of Cook County from 1966 to 1970, during which time he jailed the Chicago Seven (or Eight) and made them cut their hair. The Sheriff's sister was Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's secretary, the one who erased a crucial tape. Sheriff Woods was known for, among other things, wearing President Nixon's discarded suits around town.

My friend Joe Woods reacted to this--and to his education in German at a Jesuit boarding school--by becoming a Marxist (in theory) and buying an Uzi, which he sometimes fired into the ground on the Fourth of July. Like me, Joe raised wolves for the joy of it. But to get at what Joe was like, well, he as a good-looking Irish American of steelly intelligence, great warmth and integrity, and totally a family man. He made a living by writing about cars, but his focus was on his wife and daughters. ABD in philosophy from the University of Chicago, Joe loved discussion and argument. He didn't watch television. Joe was always interesting, always right there. Right there. He was strong as a bull. He did everything too hard, I guess, and one day he went out and ran too hard, maybe, and now I miss him.