Judge Wood Honored At Reception
by Don Fletcher
Prattville Progress staff writer

More than 200 people filled into the chapel of Prattville's First Baptist Church on Tuesday to say farewell to a long-tenured and well-respected jurist who isn't actually stepping down from the bench. Not entirely, anyway.


District Attorney Randall Houston pays tribute to district court judge Phillp Wood.
     -- Angelique Suzanne
The throng -- which included people in jeans and T-shirts, those in dresses and three-piece suits and those in the uniforms of city and county law enforcement -- attended a retirement reception for Judge Phillip Wood, who recently announced that he would give up his district court judgeship.

The crowd included Prattville Police Chief Alfred Wadsworth, Autauga County Sheriff Herbie Johnson, county commissioners Carl Johnson and Jay Thompson, state Rep. Mac Gipson, R-Prattville, several uniformed city and county officers, and a veritable "who's who" of the local judicial community.

Wood's recent announcement, which included that he had been appointed to administer the county's first drug court, came near the end of the second year of the long-time judge's fifth six-year term. He will continue handling district court matters until his successor is named by Gov. Bob Riley.

Joining Wood at the event were his wife, Marsha, his son, Matthew and their three daughters -- Emily Smith, Rachel Wood and Laura Wood. Emily's husband Drew also was present.

The modest semi-retiree was the subject of tributes from Gipson and from Circuit Court Judge Ben Fuller, Prattville Municipal Court Judge Louis Colley, Children's Policy Council representative Martha Ellis and District Attorney Randall Houston.

After Colley, who represented the Autauga County Bar Association, told Wood that he was "proud that you were my judge, proud that I was able to practice in your court," the event's lightest moment occurred during Houston's tribute.

"It has always been a pleasure to appear before you," the district attorney said. "Judge Wood has always been the most judicially tempered person I've ever met. He is even-tempered, easy going..."

At that point, Houston's wireless phone began to ring. As the circuit's top prosecutor struggled to turn the device off, Wood leaned in and broke the solemnity of the occasion by telling Houston, "I would usually hold you in contempt for that."

The district attorney then finished his tribute by telling the judge that, "you have always been fair and impartial; you are an icon of what a judge should be."


Attendees to Tuesday’s reception congratulate Judge Phillip Wood.
Martha Ellis, who serves on the Children's Policy Council, presented Wood with a plaque in recognition of his "service, dedication and leadership" and for his "integrity and Christian idealism." Gipson, who lived across the street from Wood's family for a dozen years, presented a resolution from the Alabama Legislature that praised the judge for his "outstanding record of accomplishment and public service" during his 26 years on the District Court bench.

Fuller then admitted that the other speakers had left little unsaid in their praise.

"I was thinking this morning about what to say today, and I figured everything would be said by the time my turn got here," the county's resident circuit judge said. "But this is not really a retirement. It's a changing of a chapter; it's a new opportunity to serve. Sometimes retirement can be a sad thing, but for Judge Wood, this is really the best of both worlds."

Wood, who also received a plaque of recognition from Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, shared several anecdotes about his judicial career with the large crowd and talked about the significance of the reception's location. Then, in his typical style, he shifted the praise to those who have kept him in office for nearly three decades.

"Marsha and I were married in this church 33 years ago. Three of our children made their professions of faith here," he said as he called his family members to join him. "Many times the days seem long, but the years fly by. It's amazing to me that 26 years have flown by. It has been my pleasure to serve the residents of this county as their district judge. I am looking forward to not only my retirement, but to working with the drug court. It is an opportunity for me to stay busy and to be a part of the court system."

Marsha Wood said she had resigned herself to the fact that her husband, despite his impending retirement, probably wouldn't stray too far from the county courthouse.

"He will be there until the governor replaces him," she said. "Maybe (his court duties) will taper off after a while, but it's evident that a partial retirement is all we can expect."


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