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GAZETTELondon to study Law, and I predict you will riseto the top of the Labour movement.’ I was tooyoung to realise that life defies such predictions.Adolf Hitler stood all of us on our heads.In 1945, I emerged from the Second World Wara different man. No one can walk the valley ofdeath for years and remain the same. My prewarambition to go into politics had died on thebattlefield and I turned a deaf ear to those whowanted to promote my candidacy in the 1945general election.Yet I returned from the war with enormousenergy. While doing a full-time university jobat Nottingham, I took a BSc, an MA and a DPhil,one on top of the other. I went to Harvard asa Fulbright scholar, taught at the University ofIllinois, and became a Houblon-Norman Fellowof the Bank of England. Rising in the academicworld was plain sailing.Alas, the quirks of life decided otherwise.In 1956, my wife suddenly came down withcancer. I found a job at Melbourne University,where the climate is temperate. On arrival there,my wife collapsed; she died in 1959. Althoughthe war had prepared me for the uncertainty oflife and the power of chance, with her deathmy world fell apart; for months I was adrift.Germany to take up her first academic positionat the University of Canberra. It was love at firstsight, and Helga and I were married that year.In 1965, we joined the Institute for AdvancedStudy at Princeton. There, I published Impact ofWestern Man, a study of the extrusive aspect ofEuropean civilisation. The Institute was as far as Ihad ever expected to go.Once more, events intervened. Our only daughterbegan to have recurrent pneumonia. A changeof environment was strongly advised. At thatmoment we were invited to visit the Universityof Florida. I quickly realised that Florida's climatemight be the solution to our family's healthproblems, and we moved there in late 1966.In Florida, I began a period of research andwriting that has been described by others asprolific. To keep my teaching skills alive, I taughtworld history to a sell-out, elective class of 150.My teaching became the basis of my ConciseHistory of the Modern World, which continuesto go from one edition to the next. My familyflourished too. Together with our five children,we discovered the delights of state parks andFlorida springs and went, time and again, toSanibel Island. At home or abroad we remained atightly-knit group. We still are.book Vessel of Sadness, Iadded two more volumesof autobiography, TheRoad to Nab End andBeyond Nab End. Thesebecame best sellers.My work was honoured bythe University of CentralLancashire. You can now goWilliam Woodruff on activeservice during WWIIto my birthplace and join a tour of the Road toNab End. It's ironic that the part of my life fromwhich I fought so hard to escape should havebecome the basis of my present fame.I'm often asked how it feels to have thisacclaim. It's humbling to wake up onemorning and see your face spread across theLondon Times. I'm well aware of the illogicaland transitory nature of fame. Yet I cannottell you what a reward it is for an authorto be told by his readers that he has giventhem so much joy. What astonishes me isthe extent to which my story resonates inmy readers' lives.William Woodruff was born on 12 September1916 in Blackburn, Lancashire. He diedpeacefully, surrounded by his family, on 23September 2008 in Gainesville, Florida.In 1960, my two sons and I were rescued bya young woman who had just flown in fromI retired at eighty and, if anything, the pace sincethen has been faster than before. To my wartimeFor more information about William Woodruff’swork, please visit www.williamwoodruff.comST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE 2008/61