2004 PASSING

After graduating from Coldwater High School with the class of 1949,  Woods became produce manager for the A&P Tea Co. in the Angola, Ind. store. After returning to Coldwater from the Navy he was employed by Quality Springs Products moving their facility from the downtown area to the Jay Street location. From 1955 to 1958 he was with Local Finance Corp., becoming manager in 1956. From December 1958 to September 1986 he was employed by Branch County Bank (Century Bank and Trust), becoming president in December of 1971.

Survivors include his wife, Patricia Woods; children, Kim (Mark) Sweezie of Grand Rapids and Gregory (Jennifer) Woods of Pineville, N.C.; grandchildren, Brock Robert Sweezie and Alicia Taylor Sweezie of Grand Rapids, and Kailee Jo Woods of Pineville, N.C.; sister, Marlene (Lee) Pfost of Coldwater; brother, Alfred (Susan) Woods of Coldwater; sister-in-law, Emma Woods of Coldwater; brothers-in-law, Wayne (Margaret) Taylor of Coldwater and Vernon Taylor of Coldwater; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, Ralph Woods of Coldwater and Earl Woods of Grand Rapids.  Paul was an avid fisherman. He enjoyed his many fishing trips with friends and family at Long Lake near Traverse City. Throughout the years he enjoyed designing and doing the finish work on his homes.

Robert was married on July 6, 1961 in LaGrange, Indiana to Sally A. Burns, she survives. He was a member of the AARP, National Rifle Association, Laborers Local 355 and Local Teamsters. Graduated from Coldwater High School in 1949. Served in the Coldwater and Angola National Guards. He also was in the Army Reserve in Anderson, Indiana. He worked at G.O. Lewis from 1954 to 1983 then worked for Wagner-Flook retiring in 1991. 

Services will take place at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, May 20, 2004 at Gillespie Funeral Home, Coldwater and Pastor David Brown will be officiating. Burial will be at East Gilead Cemetery, Branch Co. 

Surviving are wife; Sally, sons; Scott Heckman of Coldwater, Gary Heckman of Burlington, Hawk Jeff Heckman of Alaska, daughter; Barbara McRae of Nevada, five grandchildren; Daryl, Brian, Rochelle, and Neely Heckman and Martin McRae.  Memorials in lieu of flowers may be made to the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan, or American Heart Association.

A community legend, Coach Eby passes on    

By roland stoy-Staff Writer

COLDWATER -- As a coach, Floyd Eby revolutionized the game of basketball, but his winning percentage in service to God far outshines anything he achieved between the backboards.

And that is saying a lot.

Daughter Sonet Goodwin said on Saturday that Eby was hired right out of Michigan State University to coach the Williamston (Mich.) High School basketball team, and having to follow an enormously popular predecessor, met the challenge by winning the state championship. He went on to do the same with the 1949 Coldwater High School Cardinals, introducing innovations that other successful coaches would copy.

Eby, who passed on last Thursday after having been in the grip of Alzheimer's disease for some time, has been credited by numerous sources with introducing and popularizing the fast break, the full-court press, the box-and-one zone defense and the one-handed jump shot.

He also coached the football team that year to a Twin Valley Conference co-championship.

"While the Cardinal basketball team helped launch a whole new dimension to basketball, it was the lifelong lessons of athletic discipline that helped the 1949 Cardinals lead successful lives. The team produced two dentists, an ordained minister, a teacher and coach, two high-ranking Army officers, a pharmacist, a university science professor, two high-ranking business executives and three successful businessmen," said an article by Detroit free-lance writer Tom Lang in 1999.

One of the dentists, Gene Fry, recently retired from practice in Grosse Pointe and now resides in Branch County.

"He's a great loss, a wonderful man," said Fry, a guard on the championship team. "He was a great coach and a great inspiration to all of us."

Fry said the spiritual nature of Eby was always evident.

"He didn't force it on anyone. He led by example," he said. "It was something to be followed."

Guard and team captain Gene Sowles said, "He was a man all to himself. He would stop at nothing to help you."

Marvin Rosenberg was a center on the 1949 team.

"It's easy for a young person to go in the wrong direction. But if you wanted to be on Coach Eby's team, you walked the straight and narrow, even if you were a star," Rosenberg said. "You can't describe Coach Eby in a few words. He was a mentor, a role model, a dynamic individual. He was a big influence on my life. Mine and many others."

That influence extended far beyond the basketball courts as the World War II veteran, land developer, founder of the Good News Bible Church, member of Gideons International, author and pilot conducted both weekly Bible studies at his Coldwater home and flew or sent out Bibles and his books to points all over the country and the world.

The basement walls where the weekly meetings were held on Cardinal Court are covered with shapshots.

"There's probably a thousand pictures of people he helped come to know the Lord," Goodwin said. "There's another couple hundred in boxes. He remembered all their names and he prayed for them."

His books, "Calling God's Tower," "Champions Forever" and "Miracles of Love," written in the 1970s, have been reprinted numerous times.

"We just got through another 2,000 copies of 'Miracle,'" said Goodwin, recalling that in 2002 they ordered the 13th printing of "Champions." She figured that at 5,000 copies a printing, there were 65,000 altogether at that point.

"I was always so proud of him," Goodwin said. "He was someone I could look up to. We were very lucky to be raised by good parents."

Bill Frankhouser of Coldwater was among those who knew Coach Eby for many years, attended the Thursday night meetings at his house and among those Eby helped come to accept Christianity and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

"He was an absolute legend," said Frankhouser.