James Pleasant Woods

James P. Woods, rector of the Board of Visitors, 1943-48 (image from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., from Woods term in Congress)

James Pleasant Woods served on the board of visitors from 1924 to 1948 and was rector from 1943 to 1948.

James Pleasant Woods, was born near Roanoke, on February 4, 1868. He attended the common schools and was graduated from Roanoke College in 1892. He studied law at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1892 and 1893, and was admitted to the bar in the latter year and commenced practice in Roanoke. He served as mayor of Roanoke from 1898-1900.

Woods was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-fifth (1917-1919) and Sixty-sixth (1919-1921) Congresses to fill the vacancies caused by the resignation of Carter Glass and was reelected to the Sixty-seventh (1921-1923) Congress. He served from February 25, 1919, to March 3, 1923. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1922 and resumed the practice of law.

Woods was president of the board of trustees of Roanoke College and a member of the board of trustees of the Randolph-Macon system of colleges. He served on the board of visitors of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute from 1924 to 1948 and was rector from 1943 to 1948. He died in Roanoke on July 7, 1948, and is buried in Evergreen Burial Park.

From the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress