With a tremendous amount of self motivation, conviction and determination, Darrell Woodcock decided many years ago that he was going to make a better life and future for himself. It all began when Woodcock was a young boy growing up in Glasgow, on a farm, in a small shack with his father, aunt, uncle, grandmother and grandfather. Each of them lived in a house that Woodcock describes, with a motion of his hand, to be the size of the room where we are sitting.

Woodcock humbly recalls, “It was not only a small shack, but we had sheets of plastic up as our ceiling.  We knew when it was raining, because the water would drip through it and hit your face in the middle of the night.  That is when we would get the buckets out.  I knew that I was definitely in the minority in my hometown because normal kids did not share a bedroom with their father and aunt. Other kids did not have pieces of paper shoved into holes in their floors and walls to keep the air and bugs out.  My dad was a factory worker and my mom worked in a nursing home as a nurses’ assistant. Factories were struggling and the factory jobs came to a halt when the factories closed.

“It was not easy as a kid to be that different,” comments Woodcock. “A few kids lived in poverty, but I was certainly different. I tried to be friends with other kids, but I was always an outcast.  While most kids met up and hung out after school, I worked.  While some kids had a paper route, I had three routes so that I could buy clothes to attempt to look like the other kids. While most kids invited friends over from school, I would have the bus drop me off one-half mile down the road, so that no one would see the place I called home.

“I went to school in the city, where a lot of wealthy kids attended. It was even harder to fit in there because of the kids’ whose fathers were doctors or lawyers. I will never forget one kid complaining about the cost of insurance on the luxury car that his parent’s bought him.  He did not have a job, so obviously his parents were paying the insurance as well.  They were in a different world.  I always knew that I wanted a different life for my future and for my future family.”

“One thing I did not realize, until I was older, was that my mother struggled with drug addiction. That is what led to my parents’ divorce when I was very young. At that point I lived with my father and my paternal relatives. I have a good family. I have fond memories of going on trips with my dad in the summer and sleeping in the car,” Woodcock says with a smile. “I have not kept in touch with my mother, however. I love my mom, but I have not talked to her in two or three years.” 

In his early years, Woodcock worked odd jobs for friends’ parents, worked three paper routes in middle school, and worked at an oil changing shop in high school.  Woodcock always had an interest in cars since he took auto mechanics in high school and because his uncle raced dirt track cars.  He took a great interest in his uncle’s hobby which helped direct him toward his original plan to become a mechanic.

Woodcock recalls the pivotal point in his life which he feels was one of many interventions which made him who he is today, “Nothing in my life up to that point was supposed to take me away from that life, the life of a factory worker or mechanic. When I was a senior in high school, I competed in the Ford / AAA State Competition, an automobile diagnostic and repair competition, in which students diagnose and repair staged car problems. The winning student was to be awarded a full scholarship to the Nashville Auto Diesel College. Because of an unplanned flaw with my test car (due to a mistake on the part of the competition), I did not receive the best score, therefore I won 2^nd place. If I had won 1^st place, I would be a mechanic today, and I would not have pursued a college degree.”

This event is what Woodcock calls the turning point in his life. “I had to look at the big picture and realize that my current life was not what I wanted,” comments Woodcock.

With a tremendous amount of perseverance and totally on his own, Woodcock set the ball in motion to receive a Pell Grant and financial aid to attend Western Kentucky University. Not only did Woodcock enroll as a full-time student, but he also worked 80 hours a week at Target and O’Reilly Auto Parts, unloading stock off the trucks and getting one hour of sleep between jobs.

“I would go to Target at 4 a.m. and have enough time to sleep one hour before starting my job as night manager at O’Reilly Auto Parts. I tried to schedule my work shifts on the days that I did not have classes. At one point I was also repairing lawn mower engines on the side while I was working the other two jobs,” remarks Woodcock. “It was not easy being a college student with no financial support from family. A lot of kids did not realize that I had to live like that to survive. While some kids were partying and spending money on weekends, I had to use every dime I had to pay the bills.  I did not have a safety net.  A lot of times I would buy one beer and constantly fill it up with water to make it look like I was drinking. This allowed me to be social, while allowing me to have enough money to pay my water bill.”

After Woodcock’s last two semesters, his grade point average was a 3.8. In five years he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business management and a minor in entrepreneurship.  Upon graduation he began working for Waddell and Reed, one of the oldest mutual fund families in the United States.  As a financial planner Woodcock assists individuals in establishing their financial goals such as retirement, long term financial planning, estate planning, etc. Woodcock has recently completed a course in which he will be eligible to take the board exam to become a Certified Financial Planner.

“I want to share with young people that life is all about the choices that we make. People have to make decisions every day like, ‘If I party tonight, will I be able to work in the morning? Or, do I really need to spend $150 on these shoes when I only have $160 in the bank?” says Woodcock. “Every little decision that others took for granted was a life or death matter for me. Making better choices was my only way out of poverty or the ghetto. I was always good at watching other people and learning from their mistakes. Instead of doing the things that got others in trouble, I knew that I was going to make my path different.

“Life for me was like going uphill on skates.  It is not easy, but if you plan each step you will eventually get to the top.  Every now and again you will slip and fall back down the hill, but these are the important times in your life.  Do you give up or do you plan your next step and try to make your way back up the hill. I have watched friend after friend slide down that hill and throw their hands up and give up or they sit around waiting for someone else to come solve their problems.”

“Sometimes when others comment on what I have done with my life, I think to myself, ‘I just did what everyone should do. It is really nothing that special. I just chose not to get high, not to steal, not to get in debt. Instead I chose to go to school and to work hard.’ It is really all just common sense. I have not missed a day of school or work since I was in the 5^th grade. Through the years, whenever I have interviewed for a job and I said, ‘I have never missed a day of work,’ I could just see in the employers’ eyes that he wanted to hire me,” Woodcock says in a mild, unpretentious manner.

When asked what he wants to do with his future after already accomplishing so much at such a young age, Woodcock says, “I want to continue changing my family tree.  I am the second person in my immediate family to graduate high school and the first and only to graduate from college.  I want to help young people see that nothing is impossible even despite their background or family circumstances.  I want to make sure my community is in better shape when I am gone, then when I found it.”

Woodcock not only serves as the current President of the Hendersonville Lions Club, but was instrumental in the reorganization of the Lion’s Club in Hendersonville. He is also co-founder, member and past president of a Sumner United for Responsible Government (SURG), a political organization.

Woodcock and his wife, Brittany, live in Hendersonville. Brittany is a registered nurse specializing in heart attack and stroke prevention and also works at Vanderbilt Medical Center.

by Lisa Young Barry