James W. Woodruff Paintings

James Woodard Woodruff was born in 1913 in south Texas and grew up there on a ranch and farm. He rode a horse to school. In 1932, he graduated from Karnes City High School. In 1938 or 1939, he earned a degree in chemistry and math from the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. From 1940–42, he was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force as a pilot and flight instructor. From 1942–46, he was a Captain in the U.S. Marines, serving as an engineering officer for a fighter squadron; in the Solomon Islands he was an aerial photographer. In 1949, he earned a master’s degree in painting and fine arts from Columbia University, and he spent 1950 at The Art Students League, New York. He then returned to Texas and taught art in Beaumont, Pasadena, Galveston and Houston. From 1952–58, he taught art at the University of Houston; and from 1959–81 he taught art at Southwest Texas Junior College, Uvalde, Texas which became the University of Houston-Downtown, a full-blown college. His exact date of death is unknown, but there are published interviews with him in Houston newspapers in 1984–87.