Background
Woods was born in Woonona, New South Wales on 30 March 1930 to parents Oswald and Gladys May Woods.
Woods was born in Woonona, New South Wales on 30 March 1930 to parents Oswald and Gladys May Woods.
He obtained a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney in 1955 while working as an executive trainee for Dunlop Rubber Australia Limited.
Woods began his Commonwealth Public Sector career at the Commonwealth Public Service Board in Sydney in 1955. He moved to Canberra in 1957, taking a research officer post in the Department of Territories. In December 1977, Woods was appointed Secretary of the Department of National Development (later abolished and replaced by the Department of National Development and Energy, and then the Department of Resources and Energy).
Woods was appointed Secretary of the Department of Defence in 1986, but was replaced in a reshuffle of department heads in mid-1988.
Woods died of cancer on 13 January 1990 in Canberra.