If John Charles Woodward were the dreamer and William Roe Brewster, Sr. were the educator, it was the Academy's third president, the son of William Roe Brewster, Sr. and the grandson of the Academy's founder, John Charles Woodward, who was the businessman, the innovator, and the developer. It was William Roe Brewster, Jr. who took command of the Academy at the end of the fifth decade advancing Georgia Military Academy, for the next two decades, into one of the leading private institutions in the country.

Young William (Bill) began his formal education in the Fulton County Public School System. He attended S.R. Young School in College Park in the first grade. The school was located several blocks from the Georgia Military Academy campus.

He began his second year at S.R. Young in 1928; but, after only a few days, he was withdrawn and became one of three students to make up the first second grade class at Georgia Military Academy. The three boys stayed together as a class for two years. Because of the class size, however, the students were able to cover the second, third, and fourth grades, in that time period.

The elementary school building at that time was located where Rutland Hall is today. It had only three classrooms. When Bill was not in class, he heard the older students recite. This exposure to additional teaching each day was responsible for much of his acceleration in school.

When he was in the third grade, Bill became a boarding student. Every other year thereafter he was in the boarding program. Bill recalls today that he both enjoyed and profited from the boarding experience for he learned to get along with all kinds of personalities during those early days in the dormitory, consequently making the rigors of his plebe year at the United States Naval Academy a breeze.

When he finished the seventh grade, Bill was skipped to the ninth grade. Because he was graduated at the age of fifteen and considered too young by his father to begin college, Bill was enrolled in the post-graduate course at Georgia Military Academy. During this additional year, he prepared himself for one of the service academies.

During his senior year at G.M.A., at the age of fifteen, he was Cadet Captain of "D" Company. He recalls that he was the shortest of the company commanders. For his post-graduate year, he was named the Batallion Commander, the highest cadet rank.

He liked the military and did very well with it, but he did not do as well in athletics. He felt that he was too small and too young, although he did play on the varsity basketball team and the varsity tennis team during his post- graduate year. Even in his academic endeavors, he considered himself only average.

The United States Military Academy at West Point had been Bill's goal because his father and his uncle had attended; but the minimum entrance age was seventeen, and he was only sixteen at the end of his post-graduate year. Since Georgia Military Academy was an Honor Military School, it could nominate three cadets to stand competitive examinations for ten appointments to the United States Naval Academy. Georgia Military Academy was in competition with Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps freshmen from Harvard, the University of Southern California, Georgia Tech, the University of North Carolina, and others, plus about eighty nominees from all other Honor Military Schools. Of the ten appointments, G.M.A. won two. One of Bill's high points in his scholastic career, he feels, was that he placed fourth in the nation.

Prior to his graduation from the Naval Academy, because of his previous military training, Bill requested a post graduation transfer to the Marine Corps. Fortunately, he says today, the lottery did not work in his behalf and he was not chosen. Instead, he was assigned to a World War I destroyer on the East Coast. It was an old ship with a small complement which forced him to assume responsibilities in many areas. He qualified as Officer-of-the-Day underway, after only a one way crossing of the Atlantic.

At various times he served as Torpedo Officer, First Lieutenant, Gunnery Officer, and Navigator. He had a great deal of at-sea-war combat during which he saw many ships sunk and picked up many survivors.

The highlight of his eighteen months abroad one ship came when he landed at Safi in French North Africa fifty to one hundred miles south of Casablanca. It was a suicide mission (unloading a company of assault troops.) The ship was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation; and, he as a gunnery officer, received the Silver Star.

After his Atlantic tour, he completed an eight-week gunnery and fire-control course in Washington and was sent to Seattle, Washington to commission a new destroyer as its gunnery officer. Shortly thereafter he volunteered for naval flight training. However, he was named the Executive Officer of his old ship and remained in that capacity for one year. He was awarded a Bronze Star for skill in conning the ship during a night torpedo attack from Japanese planes off Okinawa.

Eighteen months later, he completed his flight training, qualified in aircraft carrier landings, and the war ended. He did not relish a lifetime career in a peacetime navy, so he resigned from the regular navy and accepted a Naval Reserve commission.

Then Commander Brewster, he started teaching mathematics, science, and aeronautics at Georgia Military Academy. He also had duties as academic dean of the high school and junior college as well as serving as director of maintenance, transportation, and purchasing from 1949 until 1951. During this time he stayed active in the Naval Reserve, commanding a small carrier air-group which consisted of one F6F fighter squadron and one TMB bomber squadron.

When the Korean War came along, there was a critical shortage of Naval Air Intelligence Officers. He volunteered; and after completing the Air Intelligence course in Washington, D.C., he was reassigned as an officer to identify, recruit, and train Naval Reserve Air Intelligence officers. That assignment threw him in contact with the power structure of Atlanta because many of them served in World War II in that capacity. That assignment proved to be of immeasurable help in fund raising when he became president of the school.

After completion of a two year tour on active duty, he returned to Georgia Military Academy in 1953 as superintendent and director of the total program of the high school and elementary school, in addition to director of construction. He remained active in the Naval Reserve until he became president. He then became inactive in the Naval Reserve because he did not feel that he could accept a recall to active duty with less than a full scale mobilization.

It was February 24, 1945 when William R. Brewster married Kathyrn "Kitty" Cummings from Richmond Hill, LI, New York. During her years at GMA/WA, she was instrumental in helping to develop the Academy with her work with the Clothing Store and the Bookstore and with her constant supervision of the school grounds. In fact, she was famous for the hundreds of tulips and other flowers which adorned the campus. In addition, she was very active as the official school hostess and sponsor of Academy social events and cadet dances.

Bill and Kitty have three daughters, Kathy, Susan, and Dianne. Susan and Dianne are GMA/WA graduates, and Kathy and Susan are teachers at the Academy today.

Upon Captain Brewster's return to G.M.A. in 1953 as Superintendent, he earned a Masters Degree from Emory University. In addition, he would become a director of the Bank of Fulton County, a director and President of the Atlanta Rotary Club, a director of the South Fulton County Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Georgia High School Association, the Georgia Accrediting Commission, and the Department of Defense Advisory Panel on ROTC Affairs.

During Captain Brewster's twenty year tenure as CEO of G.M.A./WA, he was president of the Southern Association of Independent Schools, the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools, the Georgia Association of Independent Schools, and the Atlanta Area Association of Independent Schools.

Excerpt from “The Woodward Story”, by Robert Ballentine, published 1990 by Jostens Printing and Publishing; content used with permission of the copyright holder, Woodward Academy Inc., College Park, Georgia, USA.