Born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Woodward studied at
Yale University, graduated in 1922 and was a 1922 initiate into the
Skull and Bones Society. He was a
Foreign Service officer in Europe and Haiti from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s before returning to Philadelphia as commissioner of
Fairmount Park. He returned to the Foreign Service in 1937, serving first as assistant chief of protocol and then as chief of protocol at the State Department until his appointment as ambassador in 1950. He was a favorite social companion of FDR. Notable for his cautiousness in protecting
Axis diplomats at the onset of World War II, he was also largely responsible for the introduction of
black tie attire as acceptable
formalwear. He served as the United States Ambassador to Canada (1950–53). ==References==