Woodhalls death creates party void
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press January 3, 2001.

By JULIE DRAKE
and LISA WAHLA
Valley Press Staff Writers

As word spread about his tragic death, friends and supporters remembered Valley GOP political activist and Antelope Valley College Trustee Wayne Woodhall as a hard-working, quietly effective leader whose political career seemed to be just taking off.

Woodhall, president of the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly, was killed New Year's Day at his east Palmdale home when a truck apparently rolled on top of him.

Woodhall, 59, devoted much of his time to advancing the cause of conservative politics, spending hundreds of hours volunteering for various local campaigns and running the Republican Assembly booth at the Antelope Valley Fair.

Antelope Valley Republican Assembly founder Frank Visco said Tuesday, "I'm very saddened; I'm sad for his family. Wayne was a great Republican activist in the Antelope Valley and we're certainly going to miss him."

Woodhall himself described AVRA membership as people who are "just good Americans interested in traditional family values." The membership itself, he reflected after last year's election, represented the common aspirations of the group, to advance individual liberty and core traditional values.

Despite the group's phenomenal success in aiding the election aspirations of its members and those who benefit from endorsement by the group, Woodhall described it as a grass-roots political club rather than an organization for brokering power in the Valley.

Certainly, Woodhall embodied characteristics of wholesome friendliness and a wish to be involved in improving his community.

Friends also remembered Woodhall on Tuesday for his emu ranch, which produced meat, eggs and holiday gifts for friends. Emu ranching represented a career departure after working for years as an aircraft engineer on one of the nation's most top-secret projects, the B-2 stealth bomber.

A movie featuring Woodhall's emus, "Double Take," was set to open in theaters on Jan. 12.

Woodhall won office to a four-year term on the Antelope Valley College board of trustees in November 1999. College board members have not yet decided how to fill the seat for the final three years, either by special election or appointment.

Tom Lackey, a member of the Palmdale School District board of trustees, said Woodhall and his wife, Johnnie, were "a throwback to an old morality. They had such a loving relationship, and that was a natural draw."

"He wasn't willing to compromise his principles for popularity," Lackey said, a quality demonstrated during his college board run.

Lackey said Woodhall became a close friend and was the one who encouraged him to run for the Palmdale trustee seat.

Woodhall's term at the head of the Republican Assembly was set to end this month. Fellow assembly member Andy Visokey said Woodhall was equally encouraging of Visokey's recent run for Lancaster City Council.

"He tirelessly knocked on doors handing out literature and put out signs," said Visokey, who met Woodhall when the two worked together on the B-2 bomber program in the late 1980s.

"He was one of my best campaign workers," Visokey said.

Woodhall worked just as hard on his own campaigns, first staging a 1997 bid for the Antelope Valley Union High School District board of trustees. That election bid fell short, but he later prevailed in his run for the college board.

"He really felt like that was his calling, to get involved and make a difference," said AVRA member Keith Giles, a Lancaster School District trustee. For the college board election, "He worked really hard and had signs all the way in Agua Dulce."

Woodhall's college board colleagues greeted the news of his death with shock and sadness. Woodhall was elected vice president of the board at its Dec. 11 meeting.

"I would express my sincere condolences to Mrs. Woodhall and the children. This came as quite a shock to all of us," said board clerk Betty Lou Nash.

At the board's next meeting on Monday, Jan. 8, trustees will address how to fill Woodhall's empty seat.

Patricia Sandoval, the college's interim president, said Tuesday she was reviewing state education codes to determine what steps the board needs to take to fill the vacancy.

"It looks like there are two major options," Sandoval said. Those options include holding a special election in June to fill the position for the balance of the term.

Sandoval added trustees could decide to announce the vacancy to the community, ask for nominations and then appoint a replacement.

Michael R. Adams, the newly elected board president, praised Woodhall's dedication to the college.

"He always put the college first," Adams said. "It's of course a really deep loss to me personally and to the college community. He was a friend as well as a colleague."

Adams said it was unlikely the board would authorize a special election in order to fill the vacancy with the regular election scheduled in November.

Darrel Brown, a Lancaster sheriff's sergeant and high school trustee, said Woodhall's fund-raisers stood out. While other candidates held soirees with chicken wings or tri-tip, Woodhall's featured emu hors d'oeuvres.

Woodhall expanded the membership base of the Valley Republican Assembly during his two years as president, said Randy Hall, an Assembly member and 36th Assembly District Republican Committee chairman.

"He led AVRA well and was a hands-on type of leader," Hall said. "When there was a schism in the group, Wayne was able to pull it back together quite a bit by showing a common purpose."

Assembly member Sharon Runner said Woodhall was a great motivator who successfully brought in volunteers. She said he coined the phrase "Republican has `I Can' in it."

"This is a tremendous loss for the Valley," Runner said. "It's a tragic accident and difficult to understand."

Fellow Republican Assembly member Sue Stokka agreed: "He was really just getting started on his political career," she said. "The death of one of us always brings home the reality that life is tenuous. It could so easily been one of us. He definitely will be missed."

Longtime college board member Earl Wilson said Woodhall was just beginning to come into his own in the year that he was on the board.

"He was really beginning to get a grasp of it," Wilson said. "It's a great loss." Wilson praised "the way (Woodhall) would express himself and bring his point of view around."

Woodhall's honesty and "good intentions for the community" even turned leaders from the other end of the political spectrum into friends.

Robert Alvarado, president of the Democratic Club of the High Desert, noted how the two men had worked closely together during the March 1999 Measure A campaign, the Lancaster School District bond.

Funeral arrangements were pending late Tuesday.