Shadid, Woody

Woody Shadid’s Pantagraph career spanned an amazing six-plus decades. It all began in 1935 as a newspaper carrier, five years before he graduated from Bloomington High School. It’s unlikely anyone else has enjoyed a more extensive and productive tenure at The Pantagraph—McLean County’s longest-running business, having been established in the 1850s—than Woody! Hired as an office boy in 1940, his many full-time positions included city circulation bookkeeper, assistant city circulation manager, national advertising manager and director of advertising. He retired in 1986 but returned eleven years later to serve as the newspaper’s part-time “ambassador.” In that capacity, he called on new businesses, lunched with advertisers and attended meetings of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce. He retired a second time in 2007. Woody has long been known as one of the Twin Cities tireless volunteers, putting in countless hours with the American Red Cross of the Heartland, BroMenn Foundation (now the Advocate Charitable Foundation), Miller Park Zoo, the Humane Society of Central Illinois, Family Services of McLean County, United Way of McLean County and many others. He served as a chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy, and his many honors include induction in 2009 into the Bloomington High School Hall of Fame. Woody lives in Normal with his wife Jane. His family includes two sons, four stepdaughters and eleven grandchildren.