Woodruff exhibit shows man behind ‘Mr. Anonymous'

Even at Emory University, the beneficiary of a $105 million gift from Woodruff and his brother George, there are students who don't know who the "Woodruff" in Emory's Woodruff Library is, except that there's a larger-than-life statue of him outside the entrance, with hat and ever-present cigar.

To bring the elusive millionaire into focus, Gue has been working for the past 21/2 years, sorting and cataloging the Woodruff papers, 288 linear feet of letters, files and photographs that follow Woodruff from his indifferent career as a student (he was invited to leave Emory after a single term) to the captainship of the soft-drink empire.

A taste of that enormous collection, titled "The Future Belongs to the Discontented: The Life and Legacy of Robert W. Woodruff," is on display at the Woodruff Library's Schatten Gallery, running Thursday through March 25, 2011. It offers a few intimate glimpses into the life of a man who did his best to disappear from the public view, earning the nickname "Mr. Anonymous."

Woodruff was not a writer or a reader. There are no journals, very few speeches and little evidence of Woodruff making public appearances. “He gave speeches, but he hated doing it,” Gue said. “There were no diaries. He didn’t have a personal library. He had books, but he didn’t crack them."

His longtime business associate Joseph W. Jones suggested that Woodruff may have been burdened with a form of dyslexia, Gue said. To compensate, he did business by talking. Many of those conversations survive as reminiscences from his friends.

One of Woodruff's better-known self-deprecating explanations for his success is featured in the show: "I ain't smarter than anyone else -- I'm just awake more, so I get more done."

We also learn about his capacity for work. An early photo shows the recent Emory dropout who had taken a job shoveling sand. He arrived at the photographer's studio in his work clothes, pressed and immaculate, proud to be employed.

Later, Woodruff took a job as a car salesman with the White Motor Co.

A telling photo from the exhibit shows a young and solemn Woodruff, having become the vice president of sales at White Motor Co., standing among his sales force as they board a train for headquarters in Cleveland. Woodruff is the youngest man in the group and the only one not smiling. "In this photo you can tell right away who's in charge," Gue said.

Woodruff displayed that take-charge style on a crucial day in Atlanta history.

On April 4, 1968, the day that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Woodruff and former Georgia Gov. Carl Sanders were at the White House, meeting with Lyndon Johnson. Woodruff made a storied telephone call to Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen that evening, though neither the conversation, the phone call nor the trip to the White House itself are mentioned by Woodruff in any letter or journal.

We learn about that conversation through a snippet from Allen's papers -- also included in the exhibit -- in which he recounts the words he heard from Woodruff: "The minute they bring King's body back tomorrow -- between then and the time of the funeral -- Atlanta, Georgia is going to be the center of the universe. I want you to do whatever is right and necessary, and whatever the city can't pay for will be taken care of. Just do it right."

Event preview

"The Future Belongs to the Discontented: The Life and Legacy of Robert W. Woodruff," Thursday through March 25, 2011, in the Robert W. Woodruff Library's Schatten Gallery, 540 Asbury Circle, free, and open to the public. Information: 404-727-6887; marbl.library.emory.edu/ .