Remembering Molly
Butler Class of 1993 looking to extend Woodroofe legacy with soccer scholarship

By John Enrietto 
Eagle Sports Editor 

Sports were her enjoyment. People were her passion. 
Molly Woodroofe's name may soon forever benefit both, thanks to her fellow 1993 Butler High School graduates. 
Woodroofe, a former multiple-sport athlete at Butler who went on to a standout collegiate soccer career at Yale University, died from pancreatic cancer recently at age 41. 
“She was taken from us quickly. She didn't have much of a chance to fight this,” said Dionne Dodson, associate head women's basketball coach at St. Francis (N.Y.) University. “But Molly had a tremendous outlook on life and she was an educator. 
“We want her memory to go on, her legacy to continue. Soccer was the sport she went on to succeed in at college, so we want to form an annual girls soccer scholarship at Butler High School in her name.” 
Dodson, 1,000-point scorer Allyson Cowoski and Woodroofe formed the backcourt for Butler's girls basketball team in 1992-93. That team was Butler's first girls hoop squad to qualify for the state tournament in nearly 10 years. 
“That was because of her,” Cowoski said of Woodroofe. “She made it tons of fun. When she spoke, people listened. She was definitely the leader type.” 
But Woodroofe was also a stellar forward on the Golden Tornado's girls soccer team. 
She went on to become an All-Ivy League soccer player at Yale. 
“You name the sport and she could play it — and learn to play it well,” Dodson said. “Soccer, basketball, track and field, softball, tennis, golf, she did them all.” 
Dodson said that “our graduating class was around 700 and Molly knew 400 to 450 of them personally. She was such a positive person who always saw the good in people.” 
Ursula Dausch Slater, who was president of that 1993 senior class, agreed. 
“Molly was awesome,” Slater said. “An outstanding athlete and an even nicer person. She knew what was important in life.” 
After graduating from Yale, Woodroofe was a teacher and coach for nearly 20 years. She majored in history at Yale and earned her master's degree in liberal studies at Georgetown University. 
After teaching at Westminster School in Connecticut, Woodroofe taught at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., for 10 years and became that school's first varsity female coach when she took the reins of the boys soccer team. 
Vance Wilson, her former Head Master at St. Albans, wrote: “Those ten classes of young men could not have been more fortunate to have her as a teacher, and also to spend time in the presence of a young woman with passionate beliefs and high academic standards, the will to never stand aside, and the wit to speak the truth to a young man and still care about him.” 
Cowoski said Woodroofe was popular in high school “because she cared about what you had to say. And if you needed her, she was there for you. That was genuine.” 
In two days, $1,000 was raised for the Woodroofe soccer scholarship. The fund needs $10,000 to kick off the scholarship. 
The scholarship donation page can be found at www.gofundme.com/2ges58t8. 
“We had such a diverse graduating class,” Slater said. “Molly, Dionne, Brian Minto, Matt Clement, so many athletes, and we had eventual physicians ... It's cool all the different ways that class has impacted the world. Molly is right at the head of it.” 
Cowoski fought back tears as she spoke of her deceased friend. 
“It's such a big loss,” she said. “There was no fear in that girl. She would try anything. This scholarship idea is awesome. Nobody deserves it more.” 
Woodroofe became head of the history department at Spence School in Manhattan in 2013. She was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2015 and married Blair Parker, dean of Riverdale School in the Bronx, in March of this year. She died July 20. 
“Molly was only with us for a short time,” Dodson said. “But she was a true role model, totally unselfish, always about team. 
“Her influence will be felt by a lot of people for a very long time.”