Mary Woodward, daughter of longtime Bainbridge Island Review owners and editors Walt and Mary Woodward, died July 17.

In 2008 she authored a book, In Defense of our Neighbors, with their role as the first newspaper publishers on the West Coast to condemn the internment of residents of Japanese ancestry during World War II. They turned their newspaper into a voice for constitutional and human rights.

“Ever since I started working here four years ago I’ve learned so much about the Woodwards,” Review editor Steve Powell said. “The stand they took for their Japanese American neighbors was inspiring. It had to have felt like they were taking on the world alone. It was so brave of them. Of course now everyone realizes it was the right thing to do. But after Pearl Harbor that wasn’t the predominant viewpoint.”

As the Review put together its Centennial Edition this year, Powell said the staff’s research showed the newspaper was loved and respected so much during the decades the Woodwards owned it.

“I was fortunate enough to talk about journalism with Mary during an online forum during COVID,” Powell said of the “Courage in Journalism” forum in March of 2022 put on by the BI Historical Museum and others. “I truly admired her.”

Mark Funk, whose father Wallie owned the Whidbey Island paper for many years while the Woodwards were in BI, posted on social media, Mary Woodward was, “A woman whose newspaper roots remind us how important weeklies can be to their cities, towns … and islands. And how much publishers like the Woodwards are missed in our world today.”

As a family, the Woodwards attended St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, where Mary and her sisters were active in the youth choir. The highlight of each year was in August when they would get in their boat, the “Big Toot,” and go to the San Juan Islands to fish, shuck oysters and play card games. At dinnertime, they often talked about the news of the day.

“My parents never thought of themselves as heroes,” their daughter said. “Walt and Milly believed in community and knew that a newspaper is what connects and ties that community together by giving a voice to the people who had no voice, by sharing the daily news of the garden club, the libraries, schools, the kids and bringing their island together.”

Woodward was living in a senior living facility in Yakima and unable to do an interview in January for the Review’s 100th anniversary special section because of health reasons.