Berton Garfield Woods 90th

WOODS 90th

Berton “Bert” G. Woods recently celebrated his 90th birthday in Sequim, Wash., with his family and church friends. He was born at home in Springfield, Mass., on Feb. 15, 1926, to Garfield and Ernestine Woods. The fourth of five children, he is the lone survivor.

Bert fell in love with Jesus at Atlantic Union College in Lancaster, Mass. There he also fell in love with Mary Gebhard, and they married in 1954. Together they raised three children — Doug Woods of Auburn, Wash.; David Woods of Foresthill, Calif.; and Laurie Sim of Auburn, Wash. Bert also has six grandchildren.

Bert worked as a colporteur for several years, then, in upstate New York, as an Adventist elementary school teacher for six years. The couple moved to Kettering, Ohio, in 1964. After two more years of teaching, Bert took a job in the patients' account office at Kettering Hospital, where he worked until they moved back to New York state in 1974.

He finished his career as representative and then area director for Christian Record Braille Foundation (now Christian Record), retiring in 1988. Bert moved to the Boise, Idaho, area in 1992 and built a home in the hills north of town.

After Mary died, mutual friends from Maranatha projects introduced him to a lovely widow, Gerrie Losey Crowell of Renton, Wash.

Gerrie and Bert were married at Auburn Academy in 1994. He immediately inherited four more children and six more grandchildren. Together, Bert and Gerrie participated in many international Maranatha projects, from Argentina to Norway and Nepal.

In 1999, they moved to their present home in Sequim, Wash., where Gerrie is thrilled to have her daughter, Collette Pekar, and son-in-law, Mark, as their current pastors.

Bert's interests include singing, traveling and World War II history. He continues to enjoy good health — and still often sings for church.