Randy Woodson had plenty of friends and well-wishers in attendance Tuesday at Reynolds Coliseum for his formal installation ceremony as N.C. State's chancellor.
Two who couldn't make it: Pat and Herb Woodson, the chancellor's parents. They stayed home in Fordyce, Ark., where Herb Woodson is nursing a bum leg. But they followed the festivities on the NCSU website, bursting with pride.
Herb Woodson, 79 and retired from the construction and restaurant businesses, told me Tuesday he wasn't surprised that his son laid out some fairly ambitious plans for NCSU.
"What he starts, he likes to finish," the elder Woodson said. "He's driven, but he's driven to do a good job. If he does something, everybody is going to know about it."
And he thinks his son, formerly the provost at Purdue University in Indiana, will be NCSU's chancellor for the duration.
"He loves it," Herb Woodson said. "They spent 25 years in Indiana. It gets cold there, you know! He wants to finish his career [at NCSU]."
