Patrick Ross Woods, 60

»Information from the George P. Kalas Funeral Home website.

On Wednesday September 16th, Patrick Ross Woods, 60, passed away at the Reston Hospital Center due to a sudden illness.

Woods was born and raised in Bedford, Indiana by his parents Walter and Geraldine. He attended Bedford High School where he was a basketball star, a chess enthusiast, and an avid debater. He earned a B.S. degree in Public Administration and a M.P.A. in Public Management from Indiana University in 1980. While attending IU as an undergraduate student, he served as a City Councilman in Bedford, the youngest individual at the time to ever serve in such a position.

Shortly after receiving his degrees, he moved to Maryland where he resided the rest of his life. It was in Maryland where he started his long and successful career in aerospace technology. Pat became an acknowledged leader in the country’s space programs; working at Integral Systems, Lockheed Martin, Loral Aerospace, Ford Aerospace, and Integrity Applications.

He started at Ford Aerospace as a software engineer working on the Hubble Space Telescope satellite operations control center at Goddard Spaceflight Center, and later became the Program Manager for that effort. From 1988 to 1990, Pat led a team that received three NASA Headquarters and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center awards for their achievement, dedication, and support of the ground systems in the satellite operations control center, and the subsequent support of the successful Hubble Space Telescope launch. These successes led to him being appointed Director of Mission Operations for Lockheed Martin (formerly Loral Aerospace and Ford Aerospace).

Pat joined Integral Systems in 1995 where as Director of Mission Operations he led the team that built the satellite command and control system for NOAA and the military’s polar weather satellites. He built upon this success by leading the team that designed and delivered the command and control system for all of the military’s communication satellites. The delivery of this system was a first for the military; it was built using commercially available software at a fraction of historical prices. Through his success at Integral, Pat progressed from Director of Mission Operations to Vice President of NOAA Programs, to Executive Vice President of Government Programs.

Pat joined Integrity Applications in 2007, where he used his 30 years of industry experience with satellite ground systems to lead technical reviews and assessments of national security programs. Most recently, Pat led the launch readiness assessment for the Navy’s MUOS-4 satellite that was successfully and spectacularly launched on September 2, 2015.

Pat loved the Chicago Bears, Maryland and Indiana University basketball, boating, grilling, playing cards, war movies and games, walking and laying on the beach, taking vacations, and eating crabs. People were drawn to Pat’s charismatic personality and he was well loved by many. He is survived by his two children, Kira Rogers (25) and Patrick Woods (19) and his newborn granddaughter, Callie Rogers (3 weeks).

Friends may call at the George P. Kalas Funeral Home, 2973 Solomons Island Road in Edgewater, on Friday, Sept. 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. and on Saturday, Sept. 26, from 10 a.m. until the time of his funeral service at 11 a.m. Interment will be private.

The family strongly recommends a donation to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in lieu of flowers, as Pat had a great love for anything he could do by the bay. The family suggests casual attire for all services (Chicago Bear or University of Maryland attire welcome).