Ruby G. Woodson

Who was Ruby G. Woodson?

Ruby Garrard Woodson was an educator and chemistry teacher, the founder of the Cromwell Academy in Washington, D. C., and the founder of the Florida Academy of African American Culture in Sarasota, Florida.

She was born in Houston County, Alabama, but raised in Sarasota. Her mother, Ella Mae Garrard worked as a maid and later owned a small country store. Her father, David Garrard, was a farmer, and later a circus roustabout. She had one child, William G. Woodson.

At the age of fifteen, she was the valedictorian of her class of 1947 when she was graduated from Booker High School in Sarasota.

In June 1951 Ruby was awarded her bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Florida A & M University in Tallahassee, Florida. She received her Master of Arts in Education from American University in Washington, D.C in 1960. The title of her Masters thesis was "Some Effects of the Atomic Era on the Teaching of High School Chemistry in the United States."