Another childhood friend, Robin Armstrong, said Mr. Woodruff was “not a nurturing
father.” Ms. Woodruff said he had difficulty adjusting to life as a civilian.
“I consider myself a people person, but Gwen was really a people person.”
Ms. Woodruff has been closely involved in the search, said Sara Just, the executive producer of “NewsHour.”
“Judy and Gwen had tremendous chemistry,” Ms. Just said.
She was interested from the beginning.”
The daughter of William H. Woodruff, a chief warrant officer in the Army,
and Anna Lee Woodruff, who did not work outside the home, Ms. Woodruff had lived in two countries and five American cities by the time she was a teenager.
The offices are a six-mile, traffic-clogged drive from Washington, in Arlington, Va.
Over lunch at a nearby restaurant, Ms. Woodruff said
that getting her start wasn’t easy, and that she was told she could not be hired as a reporter by one prospective employer — he already had one “woman reporter” on staff and wouldn’t be needing another.