STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More The Marcophile

• The Marcophile: See through and listen
• The Marcophile: New signs of good times at the Esplanade
• The Marcophile: Here and around

Share and Enjoy [?]

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of Chris Curle profiles of the men and women who are taking part in Dancing With the Starz charity gala August 11.

It’s no surprise that Starz dancer Craig Woodward supports the Marco Island Historical Society. Craig and his family have been part of the historical fabric of Marco since Craig was a boy. Before that, Craig’s parents, Arthur and Glenellen, came to Marco as campers.

“In the ‘50s they came over the Goodland Bridge to the beach,” Craig said. “They didn’t know anything was on the island. They never went to old Marco, never saw the Old Marco Inn and never went anywhere but to the beach.

“They put up a tent and collected some shells and took them home to Springfield (Illinois)” Craig said. “When I was growing up in the ‘60s, we still had that box in the basement, labeled “Marco Island shells.”

Craig and his twin Mark lived the first four and a half years of their lives in Spain and came back to the U.S. speaking only Spanish.

“So we learned English as a second language, which I explain to people when I misspeak.”

When the Woodwards moved to Marco in 1968, Craig went to East Naples Middle School, joined the Boy Scouts and did a lot of fishing and camping in the Everglades. Getting to school each day also was an adventure.

“We lived in Old Marco so the one school bus here picked us up first, about 5:30 a.m. The bus then picked up kids in Caxambas at the fishing camp where the estates area is now.

“Then we went to Goodland — the Jolley Bridge wasn’t built yet — and picked up a few kids in Goodland and some Seminole Indian kids at Royal Palm Hammock, then to a trailer park out there and on to East Naples for a couple of stops before we got to school.

“The Jolley Bridge opened a year later and we were so happy because it took 14 miles off our trip and we could sleep later.”

After law school, Craig followed his dad’s footsteps into the legal profession and into his law firm, focusing on law related to real estate, commerce, wills and trusts. He also co-owns First Title and Abstract and North Marco Utility Company.

Craig is as involved in the community and civic affairs of Marco’s present, as much as he is enamored of its past. He’s been president of the Chamber of Commerce, the Marco YMCA and of Marco’s Sunrise Rotary. He’s active with the Historical Society and runs a history program for Leadership Marco. He loves Marco and has no patience for the few constant complainers who spout nonsense, such as saying Marco looks like a third world country.

“Go to the third world and come back and tell me it looks like that here,” Craig says. Craig has a lot of colorful comments about the carping critics, but he’s positive about Marco’s future, despite grumblings of a disgruntled few.

“The county didn’t do much here and our infrastructure deteriorated and now we’re making up for it. We need to do it.”

Right now Craig is concentrating on raising money for the historical society and on his footwork for the August 11 Dancing With the Starz gala.

“I had a lesson. It went pretty well but it’s harder than I thought. I just want to be presentable.”

He will be and then some. Who knows, maybe this maven of Marco history could make a little hoofin’ history himself.

---

Chris Curle is a former news anchor for CNN and for ABC TV stations in Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C. E-mail: chris@chriscurle.com.