High Gear - Rocky Mountain Region Porsche Club - Porsche Club of ...

advertiser spotlight Roger Buswell, Advertising Coordinator
A Tale of Two
Careers
One of our newest,
yet returning advertisers
in High Gear
(check out the inside
back cover) is Woodward Wealth Management,
owned by Al Woodward,
CFP® and his bride, Marilyn. Al and
Marilyn have been involved with
Porsches, the SCCA and PCA in several
cities for over 30 years.
Mr. Woodward has lived life to the
fullest and has been involved in many
important events in recent
American history. As a military
prep school graduate and
ROTC cadet, while attending
University of Southern California
(or as he calls it,
University of Spoiled
Children), Al felt that the military
life would be fulfilling. He
enlisted in the US Army
because his recruiting
sergeant assured him that he
would be accepted into Officer
Candidate School (OCS)
immediately. He quickly
learned not to trust recruiting
sergeants. He eventually was
offered a spot in OCS, but
many moons later than promised. Al
was given more and more responsibilities
after numerous combat tours of
duty overseas. He was part of several
famous (but then top-secret)
operations, often as a senior command
officer. He served in Vietnam, Laos and
Panama, and was based in Costa Rica
to do a special job in Nicaragua involving
the Sandinistas, Ortega and
Samoza. As a Special Forces officer, he
found himself in harried situations of
intrigue that often involved shady politicians,
US and foreign intelligence
officers, black market peddlers and
intense air and ground operations using
helicopters and rare reconnaissancebattle
aircraft. Perhaps his biggest scare
was being shot down about 100 feet
over the jungle in Vietnam. His plane
wasn’t supposed to be ejected from
lower than 100 feet, but had already
descended to 75 feet. His pilot broke
his back from the effects of the ejection
26 HighGear
September 2010
courtesy Al Woodward
seat, and Al made it out only to parachute
right back into the plane that had
inadvertently glided back under him
(yikes!). He rode it in and was badly
burned as the plane caught fire. Fortunately,
he was rescued by friendly ops
and was hospitalized in Saigon for several
months.
He received several commendation
medals for distinguished service and
bravery, including the Silver Star, the
Distinguished Flying Cross, and four
Purple Hearts. After all his combat
tours, Al was placed in important comptroller
command positions for many
Al and Marilyn Woodward, owners of Woodward Wealth Management.
famous military installations, including
Fort Benning and Monterey’s Defense
Language Institute Foreign Language
Center (DLIFLC). Al found his Army
career quite fulfilling, except when people
were trying to do him great bodily
harm.
His second career came as result of a
job fair he attended with a friend, after
retiring from the Army in 1978. He was
recruited into financial
planning at
that fair and ran
regional operations
with dozens of
financial advisors
under his management.
He and
Marilyn eventually
went into business
for themselves.
They have successfully
swum the
waters of the profession;
Al has
become an icon of the financial planning
profession. Many of you will
remember when he and Marilyn hosted
a syndicated personal finance radio talk
show, “The Money Corner.” The show
originated in Denver and was broadcast
on 160 stations across the US.
Al has been a car guy since he was a
kid. He knew he wanted a Porsche since
he was a teenager. He bought a brand
new red 911 in 1974 ($14,500!) and
has driven it almost daily ever since,
accumulating over 678,000 miles. The
car, which is pictured in the Woodward
High Gear ad, is maintained by fellow
advertiser Storz Garage. Al
has been involved with racing,
too, and includes on his
resume several stints as the
SCCA equivalent of a PCA
Corner Captain at Laguna
Seca in Corner 7A, which is
the treacherous Corkscrew.
He has also served several
times as Chief of Course at
Laguna and other top courses
during high-profile and
national events, some of
which involved fire, serious
injury and fatality. Al attributes
much of his ability to
keep his cool in track Control
to his years of stressful Army
service.
Al currently serves RMR-PCA as the
Representative to the Cerebral Palsy
Colorado Annual Exotic Sports Car Show
and Concours and as Control at our
monthly DEs. Al and his wife Marilyn
met at USC and have been blessed with
three wonderful kids. They enjoy rally
events and have won or placed well in
many regional and national rallies.
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HEADLIGHT SERVICES
Highlands Ranch, Colorado • 303-683-1705
sales@headlightservices.com • www.HeadlightServices.com