Arthur Woodward, first Marco Island lawyer, dies

Marco Island has lost one of its first modern-day pioneers.

Arthur V. Woodward brought his quiet, backwoods common sense to Marco Island in 1968, when the island’s only access was the old Goodland swing bridge and the closest grocery store was in Naples.

The Illinois-bred attorney, who one friend described Tuesday as like Abraham Lincoln in demeanor, started the island’s first law firm and represented many of the developers who built the island into the resort city Marco is today.

Woodward, 80, died June 23.

“I’ve known him since 1976,” Aubrey Ferrao of Gulf Bay Development Inc. said Tuesday. “He was a visionary and a man of integrity.”

Friends and family will gather at First Baptist Church on Winterberry Drive at 11 a.m. Thursday to bid Woodward goodbye.

“I first met him when I bought a piece of property on Marco in 1969 or 1970,” said William R. Rose, owner of Marco River Marina. “He was my attorney for all those years, and he was a very good friend. I will miss him.”

Woodward was born in the coal mining town of Benton, Ill. He served in the Army Air Corps in World War II, then attended the University of Illinois, where he met his wife Glenellen. The couple was married in 1948.

Woodward earned his civil engineering degree, then put his education to work on the Maine and Massachusetts turnpikes. He then got a hankering to become an attorney, and earned a law degree.

He opened a labor law practice in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Ill., and represented the Illinois Association of General Contractors.

Woodward moved to Marco Island in 1968 and started the first law firm on the island. He represented many developers during the island’s early construction, including developers of several condominiums and the developers who built the private development that today is Hideaway Beach.

“There were only two lawyers on the island then,” Rose said. “They were located on the other side of Marco Lake, facing west. That was kind of the town center back then. There’s a locksmith there now and two restaurants.

“He was the perfect kind of attorney for Marco when Marco was hatching out of the egg. He was kind of a quiet, backwoods, Lincoln-type attorney,” Rose said.

Woodward retired from his law practice in 1986. He turned the firm over to his twin sons, Craig and Mark Woodward. They changed the name to its current moniker of Woodward, Pires and Lombardo.

Craig lives on Marco Island and works in the firm’s Marco office, while Mark lives in Naples and runs the firm’s Naples office.

Their father then became manager of First Title and Abstract, a family-owned title company. He also served as president of North Marco Utility Co., and was a board member of the Fiddlers Creek Community Development District.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made to the First Baptist Church building fund.