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A long-time Steelworker and community leader in Sault Ste. Marie is dead. Leslie Woodcock died May 1. He was 81.

Recognized by current and former Steelworker leaders, including Lynn Williams, as an outstanding trade unionist, Woodcock was a former president of Local 2251 (Algoma Steel).

He served as a trustee and board member with a number of community groups including Algoma College, Group Health Centre, Sault and Area Board of Education and Sault College.

In the mid-1950s, the Steelworkers’ National Director asked Local 2251 to establish a committee to investigate organizing union health centres for their membership.

Woodcock was one of three Sault men on that committee. Local president Bob Collins and John Barker, the union's representative in the city, also participated.

Their work helped lead to the opening of the Group Health Centre in 1963.

Former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow called the facility the Sault's "best kept secret" following a tour in 2001 as part of his health care

commission.

Woodcock was a member of the college's board of governors in 1972 when the Ontario government formally approved an independent Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology. The Northern Avenue school had operated as a campus of Cambrian College since 1967.

Born in Bethany, AB, Woodcock's family moved to the Sault in 1940 after his father died. In 1942, he joined the Second Canadian Armoured Brigade. Two older brothers, Harvey and Ken, were killed during the Second World War. Woodcock escaped death during the war when his ship was sunk in the English Channel.

In 1998, a 74-year-old Woodcock crawled along the floor of a burning

apartment on the second floor of his Adelaide Street house in an attempt to rescue a six-month-old baby. Firefighters found and resuscitated the child.