He was a member of the school board of St. Louis 1878-80, and president of the St. Louis Engineer Club in 1883/4. Woodward was president of the industrial department of the National Educational Association 1882-84, and vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1888, presiding over the section on mechanical science. In 1885 he was invited to present a paper on "Manual Training" before the educational conference in Manchester, England, and afterward he visited the educational institutions of Europe. In 1882, Woodward was granted an honorary doctoral degree in Laws from Washington University.