Michael Charles Woodrow was born on August 28, 1958, in Neubrücke, Germany, & passed away on July 15, 2026, in Springfield, IL. Born a Catholic & died a principled Deist. The son of Milton Charles Woodrow and Mary Charlene Gullo, he lived as a scholar of the Arts, of history, & of life in its entirety.
He was a poet; he was a rebel; he was also an independent thinker; he fought a lifelong battle with dyslexia, pushing himself to strive for greater personal accolades so that he would not be defined by any shortcomings. He would grow up a child of the counterculture, seeing the Summer of Love in the back seat of his family's car as they drove up the coast of California. He would go on to learn how to play drums before finding his true love of piano/synthesizers in hopes of playing music for a living, only to later put those dreams on hold & raise a family.
He was a good father who was active in politics even while working as a cook; he would be a member of the Progressive Party, with their rich history going back to Teddy Roosevelt & the Bull Moose Party. When opportunity arose, he would move his family to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he would join the culinary union & become a shop steward, all while influencing his son to develop in the arts & in politics and anything else that his son would find of interest he & his son would later move back to Springfield Illinois while his son was performing as a stand-up comedian on the road before COVID. When he retired, he would share a dream with his son to move up to Washington State after they both spent time up there experiencing the splendor that was the Pacific Northwest. He would pick music back up & was planning out with new instruments to record an independently produced album, only for health problems to slowly impede his attempts & later, after nearly seven years of his son taking care of him through these arduous years, he passed away, survived by his son Michael Charles Woodrow II & his sister Julia Woodrow.
Those who knew him would know he was an empathetic, curious, humorous, intellectual powerhouse who loved life, & his son, upon his father's passing, was quoted as saying that "I lost my father who was also my oldest friend & I will miss him dearly." May he rest now after living as interesting a life as he had lived.
Immortality
Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die.
- ClareHarner, 1934
No services are planned at this time. Cremation rites were accorded by Staab Funeral Home - Springfield.
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