J. Taylor Woodward III

J. Taylor Woodward III passed away in Boston on April 23, 2020 from peripheral T-cell lymphoma. His wife, Barbara Hauter, was able to be with him when he died.

Taylor was born on September 10, 1940 in New York City to John Taylor Woodward Jr. and Helen Ashbrook Woodward. Raised in Rye, New York, and Princeton, New Jersey, Taylor graduated from Princeton Country Day School in 1954, Phillips Exeter Academy in 1958, Princeton University in 1962, and Harvard Law School in 1965. While at Harvard, he married the late Pamela Warner with whom he had three children: John Taylor Woodward IV (Virginia Moodie-Woodward) of Bethesda, MD; Seth Warner Woodward (Jennifer Terra) of Hailey, ID, and Anne Dulles Woodward (Britt Miller) of North Port, FL. He and Pam raised their children in his hometown of Princeton, New Jersey. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982.

Taylor worked on Wall Street as an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham, & Taft in New York City until 1968, when he joined the legal department at the multi-national health care company Johnson & Johnson. There he worked on both domestic and international assignments, becoming International Counsel and eventually Corporate Secretary for the firm. Shortly before his death, upon hearing that Johnson & Johnson was working on a COVID 19 vaccine, he remarked how proud he was to have worked for that company.

Taylor married Barbara Hauter at a poolside ceremony at their Hopewell, New Jersey home in 1993. The next year, they moved to Santa Barbara, CA — a city Taylor had fallen in love with on a trip with his son a few years prior. While in retirement there, Taylor served on the boards of S.E.E. International, The Channel Islands YMCA, the Montecito Shores Homeowners Association, and the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. Taylor and Barbara also enjoyed cycling and hiking trips across Europe. Taylor wryly noted that these trips seemed to involve fewer miles and nicer accommodations as the years passed. Recently, they took eight of their grandchildren on trips to Italy.

At Princeton, Taylor played on the Ivy League championship varsity lacrosse team. He took up distance running in his forties, qualifying for and running the Boston Marathon three times. In retirement, he developed a love for golf, which he enjoyed at La Cumbre Country Club (where he served as president of the Board) and The Valley Club of Montecito. He also served for twenty five years as an official for the Southern California Golf Association, which in 2016 gave him the Jim House Award, its highest volunteer honor.

In addition to his children and his wife, Taylor is survived by his sister Helen Ewing of Baltimore, MD, his brother Donald Woodward of Gainesville, FL, his step-daughter Melora Myslik Balson (Andrew) of West Newton, MA, his step-daughter-in-law, Susan Bogue Myslik, of Boston, MA, and ten grandchildren: Lilly and Natalie Woodward; Beverly Woodward; Maggie Bogue Myslik; and Alan, Philip, Isabelle, John, Robert, and Martha Balson. He was preceded in death by his step-son, Robert Hauter Myslik.

For those who have asked, Taylor loved his work with the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara and would be honored to have any memorial donations be directed to that organization.