Woodard named Russ Award winner

Ruston attorney Russell Woodard has been named as the latest recipient of the prestigious Russ Award, which will be presented at the upcoming Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce banquet. Leader photo by Nancy Bergeron
Visit with Ruston attorney Russell Woodard, Sr., and the conversation soon becomes punctuated with names that are pivotal to local and state history.
State Sen. Charles Barham and City Attorney Howard Wright, Woodard’s neighbors growing up; the T. J. James family, whom Woodard credits with setting a positive tone for Ruston; former Mayor Hilda Taylor Perritt, his eighth-grade history teacher; former Louisiana Gov. John McKeithen, in whose law firm Woodard practiced; and the Kingfish, Huey Long, whom Woodard studied as his interest in government grew.
There are places that ground Woodard in the piney hills, as well: Both of his parents were born in Lincoln Parish. He can trace some of those roots back to before the parish was its own place.
Woodard, the third of Susie and Homer Woodard’s six children, was born in Ruston, schooled here before going to LSU and eventually coming home.
“I’m very optimistic about Ruston because I think we’ve maintained good features as a community,” Woodard said. “I think we’ve become much more vibrant than I anticipated.”
Friends and colleagues say Woodard is part of that vibrancy. To that end, the Ruston- Lincoln Chamber of Commerce has selected him as the 2024 Robert E. Russ Award winner.
The Russ award is among the highest honors given to an individual by the RLCOC.
Named after Ruston’s founder, the award recognizes outstanding contributions to the Ruston-Lincoln business community.
Woodard will receive the award during Thursday’s annual chamber banquet set for 6 p.m. at the Ruston Civic Center.
“Rusty, as he is affectionately known, has made such a positive impact on Lincoln Parish throughout his career,” reads a letter nominating Woodard for the award. “His contributions have been displayed through the countless number of individuals he has helped through his work as an attorney.
“That same impact has been felt through his role as chairman of the board of Louisiana National Bank, where his leadership and commitment to community have made Ruston and Lincoln Parish such a desirable place to live, work and raise a family.”
Woodard remembers growing up in Ruston’s Northwood Terrace subdivision in a community marked by civic-mindedness. He attributes that trait to the T. L. James family.
“I think a lot of people have forgotten the influence of the T. L. James family on this town,” Woodard said. “They set the tone for Ruston, very positive, such a civic-minded group.”
Over the hundredplus years since James family patriarch T. L. James moved from Dubach to Ruston, the family has been involved in the city’s educational, recreational, and cultural development.
Woodard’s own passion for education has been a primary focus. It’s the reason he and his wife, Cindy, a former disof trict judge, moved back to Ruston.
Woodard’s education journey began in local public schools. While a sophomore at Ruston High School, he was a page during the legislative session for the late state Sen. Charles Barham.
“I got a lot of interest in law and government through Charlie,” Woodard said.
Barham and Wright, whom Woodard called “a lawyer’s lawyer,” became Woodard’s mentors.
“By the time I went to LSU, I knew what I wanted to do,” he said.
After earning an undergraduate degree in history and English at LSU, he enrolled in the university’s law school, graduating in 1979.
“Law school was incredibly formative. I have nothing but fond memories of those years in Baton Rouge,” he said.
Woodard pursued a master’s degree at George Washington Law School and toyed with practicing international law.
But he never wrote his thesis. Instead, he discovered by then former Gov. John McKeithen’s law firm in Columbia was looking for another attorney.
“I saw the position in Columbia was both a civil practice and the possibility of being an assistant district attorney,” he said.
Woodard applied and got the job.
McKeithen, governor from 1964 to 1972, was still active in what became the McKeithen, Wear, Ryland & Woodard law firm.
“He was very, very dynamic and a very accomplished oral advocate,” Woodard said. “He was the best storyteller I’ve ever known in my life. He wanted to experience everything firsthand. He was incredibly good with people.”
Woodard and his wife, a fellow law student he met his first year in law school and married that summer, worked at the McKeithen firm for 10 years.
By 1990, the Woodards had three children: a daughter in seventh grade, another daughter in elementary school, and a son about to start kindergarten.
Their children’s education was becoming increasingly important.
They decided Ruston was the place to be.
“That was the 100% reason we moved was because of education for our kids,” Woodard said.
The move gave Woodard and his wife a chance to start afresh with their own law practice. In 1996, Cindy Woodard ran for and was elected to a 3rd District judgeship. She was the district’s first female judge, defeating a 16-year incumbent.
She retired in 2018 after 21 years as a Division A judge.
“I was very proud when she got elected,” Rusty Woodard said.
Woodard continued to practice with a new partner in the firm, now-3rd District Judge Monique Clement. In 1992, Woodard became chairman of Louisiana National Bank’s Board of Directors. Education remained a priority.
“I think education is so important for us from an economic standpoint,” Woodard said. “ The money this community can invest in education, it pays a heck of a dividend.”
The Woodard family has awarded scholarships to Lincoln Parish students, and the bank has also been involved with local schools.
“The water here isn’t special. The dirt here isn’t special. Our DNA isn’t special, but we have such a storied past in education,” he said.
Louisiana Tech and Grambling State universities anchor that, Woodard said.
“I’m a believer that this community is what it is because of Tech and because of Grambling,” he said. “If you scratch very deep, any of the good traits, you come back to Tech and Grambling very fast.”
Woodard said he thinks Robert Russ would be proud of the town that bears his name.
Chamber of Commerce board President Thomas Graham said the town is proud of Woodard.
“He’s just always been a figure in the community,” Graham said.