Robert W. Woodruff

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Robert W. Woodruff, President of the Coca-Cola Company

Robert Winship Woodruff (born December 6, 1889 in Columbus , Georgia , † March 7, 1985 in Atlanta ) was President of the Coca-Cola Company from 1923 to 1954 . With a large fortune, he was also an eminent philanthropist and many of the educational and cultural monuments in Atlanta, Georgia bear his name. These include the Woodruff Arts Center, Woodruff Park, and the Robert W. Woodruff Library.

Origin and education

Robert Winship (1863-1944)

Woodruff was a son of Ernest Woodruff (1863-1944) and his wife Emily Caroline, b. Winship, who both married on April 22, 1885. His father was an Atlanta entrepreneur and president of the Trust Company of Georgia, the predecessor of SunTrust Bank, who u. a. headed a group of investors and bought the Coca-Cola Company from Asa Griggs Candler in 1919 . His grandfather was the prominent Atlanta-based production magnate Robert Winship (1834-1899).

From 1905 he attended the Georgia Military Academy, which he later than "have made final the only place where I ever feel" called. He then briefly attended the Georgia Institute of Technology , where he failed, however, and so he moved to Oxford College at Emory University in Georgia in 1908, where he distinguished himself by "class cuts and donations", but dismissed after one semester as an indifferent student has been. Decades later, Emory dedicated his library to Robert W. Woodruff with the statement: "Mr. Woodruff entered the business with Emory before formal graduation".

life and career

In February 1909, at the age of 19, always refusing his father's job offers, he accepted his first job as a foundry worker at the General Pipe and Foundry Company in Inman Park, east Atlanta. Here he shoveled earth for 60 cents a day for a week , then he worked as an apprentice machinist on a lathe . After a year he was fired and reinstated by General's parent company, General Fire Extinguisher, where he became involved in sales.

Advertisement for the White company from 1905

Then he accepted a job offer from his father at the Atlantic Ice and Coal Company, but left after differences with him. After Woodruff of Walter White of the White Motor Company in Cleveland ( Ohio had been lured away), he played his love for the early automobiles in a sales position at the company, and the company soon became vice-president appointed. During World War I , Woodruff joined the Ordnance Corps of the United States Army , where he promoted a truck design that only White Motors could accomplish, resulting in massive sales for the company during wartime. In 1921 the automaker offered him a position on the board of directors, and in the same year Woodruff made his first deal with the Coca-Cola Company when he sold 30 trucks to the company for their thriving business.

In an effort to overcome personal differences, his father Ernest offered him the post of President of the Coca-Cola Company in 1923. At that time, the company was struggling with debts in the millions, also due to high sugar prices and lengthy processes for trademark protection and bottling contracts, and the share price had already fallen to $ 18 per share. Woodruff agreed to the job offer, despite a sharp $ 50,000 pay cut, saying, “I figured if I ever got the stock price back up to what I paid for it, I would sell and take revenge. Then I would sell cars and trucks again. "

In 1926, at the age of 37, Woodruff expanded Coca-Cola into an international company and set up an overseas division. The company mastered the global economic crisis with increasing profits every year, since "everyone could spend a nickel" for a cola. By the late 1930s, Coca-Cola had become a household name and had bottling plants in 44 countries.

In 1937 Woodruff founded the Trebor Foundation ("Trebor" is Robert spelled backwards) to pursue his philanthropy. The Robert Winship Clinic was founded in 1937 through a donation from Robert W. Woodruff of $ 50,000 to set up a cancer center at Emory University Hospital. He made the generous donation in honor of his mother, Emily Winship Woodruff, who lost her battle with cancer that year. The center was named after his maternal grandfather, Robert Winship.

He resigned as Chairman in 1954, but remained on the Board of Directors until 1984. His large shareholdings and influence over the board's powerful finance committee gave him significant control over much of the running of the company for nearly 60 years.

After a full and historic life, Woodruff was retired in Westview Cemetery. His own assessment of his life can be summed up by the words on a blackboard that he had placed in a prominent place in his bedroom: “When I compare the things that I have lost with the things that I have gained, the things that I have missed with what I could have achieved, there is little room for pride. "

Woodruff's legacy

George Waldo Woodruff (1895-1987)

In 1979 Woodruff and his brother George W. Woodruff donated $ 105 million to Emory University; they would end up giving a total of $ 230 million. Several buildings on the Emory campus are named after him and members of his family, and all Robert W. Woodruff professorships are named after him.

Woodruff Arts Center

He also donated large sums to other colleges and universities in the area, as well as Woodward Academy (formerly Georgia Military Academy), in College Park, and the Westminster Schools in Atlanta. A boy scout camp in Blairsville, Georgia, was set up as the Robert W. Woodruff Scout Reservation, administered by the Atlanta Area Council, following large donations from the Woodruff Foundation and Coca-Cola.

Woodruff Park atlanta

Atlanta's largest cultural institution, Woodruff Arts Center, benefited from his gifts and is named after him, as does Woodruff Park. A Robert W. Woodruff library is located in the Atlanta University Center and serves Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University. Another Robert W. Woodruff library houses the main library of Emory University. In 1977 he was inducted into the Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame.

Woodruff was instrumental in the success of the dinner held in Atlanta in honor of the Reverend Martin Luther King after King received the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize . Ticket sales lagged until Woodruff signaled his support for dinner.

Nell Kendall Hodgson

Robert Woodruff had been married to Nell Kendall Hodgson since October 17, 1912, in what he later described as "the most satisfying moment of his life". Nell Kandall was born in Athens (Georgia) on October 20, 1892, to Edward Hodgson and Mary Strahan . Prior to her marriage, she completed a two-year nursing program at St. Mary's Hospital in Athens. During World War I, she served as a volunteer nurse for the American Red Cross and trained other nurse aides. During World War II , she again volunteered and received permission to serve as a nurse assistant in every hospital in the United States .

In 1946, the Emory's Nursing School Alumni Association recognized their dedication to nursing education with their first honorary membership for life. The Georgia State Nursing Association also awarded Woodruff a lifetime membership in 1952 for service to the nursing profession in Georgia. A long-time nursing and health care leader, she served as the official United States delegate to the World Health Assemblies in 1954 and 1955 . In 1967 Emory University renamed its nursing school to Nell Woodruff. She died less than a year later, on January 23, 1968, in Albany, Georgia. Nell's marriage to Robert Woodruff was childless.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d "The world belongs to the dissatisfied", In: Coca-Cola Germany
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Robert W. Woodruff Foundation (English)
  3. ↑ Who is Robert Winship Woodruff ?, In: auctr.edu (English)
  4. ^ Died, Robert W. Woodruff, March 11, 1985, In: Der Spiegel . Original quote: "When I compare the things I've lost with the things I've gained, the things I've missed with what I might have attained, there is little room left for pride."
  5. ↑ Woodruff, Nell Hodgson, 1892–1968, In: snaccooperative.org
  6. ^ Woodruff, Nell Hodgson, 1892-1968. Nell Hodgson Woodruff papers, 1913-1982 (bulk 1943-1968), In: findingaids.library.emory.edu
personal data
SURNAME Woodruff, Robert W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woodruff, Robert Winship
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American manager, President of Coca-Cola
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Columbus
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1985
Place of death Atlanta