Campus mourns colleague’s death
George (Richard) Woodring, a University of Indianapolis employee and a friend to many on campus, passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 25. Woodring served as the postal supervisor for the UIndy bookstore, distributing mail to students and campus buildings.
According to senior criminal justice major and UIndy police department cadet, Lindsay Wines, a call came in to the UIndy police department that Woodring had fallen outside of Schwitzer Student Center and wasn’t breathing.
“After that, things happened really fast,” Wines said. “I recognized that Richard needed immediate help. I grabbed the First Aid Kit and AED [automated external defibrillator] that is located in the police department squad room. I ran upstairs as fast as I could to the north end of the building. I located Richard lying on the sidewalk unconscious. Richard was not breathing, and there was no pulse. I applied the AED to Richard to revive his heart, and after that, there was a slight heartbeat.”
Indianapolis Fire Department medics arrived at that time and transported Woodring to St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove.
Since the age of 15, Wines served as a lifeguard, and she is also CPR and first aid certified. If a similar situation were to occur, Wines urges students to “stay calm, call 911 and then call the UIndy police department. The officers and cadets can respond to an incident with a quicker response time.”
Woodring was not just an employee at UIndy, but a warm smile and a friend to many students.
Clayton Holt, a UIndy bookstore and mailroom employee since August 2008, described working with Woodring.
“I was always impressed with the determination with which he did his job and the bright demeanor that he maintained while doing so. He was always very efficient, very organized and very driven.”
Holt said that Woodring would go above and beyond what was expected of him and do work outside of the mailroom to ensure that things went as smoothly as possible.
These efforts included making spreadsheets, so that organizing mailboxes went efficiently, and typing up route lists for other employees, in case he was unavailable and creating other documents to ensure the mailroom was always operating as planned.
“It would be a gross understatement to say that Richard went above and beyond the call of duty,” Holt said. “And it was and is very evident that he cared greatly about, and took great pride in, the work that he did.”
Woodring was 58 years of age, and his funeral was held on Jan. 28 at the Forest Lawn Funeral Home in Greenwood, Ind. The University of Indianapolis also held a memorial service in his honor on Thursday, Feb. 3, in McCleary Chapel.
“It is unfortunate that he was taken from us both so suddenly and so prematurely,” Holt said. “I believe that Richard would not want us to dwell too heavily on what has happened, but to move forward and remember all of the amazing times and interactions that we were able to share with him.”
