College Trustee Crushed to Death by Car in Driveway

Wayne R. Woodhall, an Antelope Valley Community College trustee who led an influential group of area Republicans, died Monday after a car rolled over him, authorities said.

Woodhall, 59, had been working on a car in the sloping driveway of his home in Pearblossom, southeast of Palmdale, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Graham said. About 1 p.m., Woodhall’s wife found him in the driveway, apparently killed when a car rolled over his chest, Graham said.

It was unclear whether the car was the one he was working on or another of his family’s cars. Investigators are pursuing the incident as an accidental death, Graham said.

Woodhall was president of the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly, a 23-year-old group of more than 300 of the area’s GOP faithful and a powerful--and conservative--force in local politics. In November 1999, he was elected to the governing board of the Antelope Valley Community College District.

Republican Assembly director Vincent Klotz remembered Woodhall on Monday as a “traditional American.”

“He always stressed his family values, and that’s what really impressed me about him originally,” said Klotz, who put up signs for Woodhall’s college district campaign.

Just before being elected to the board, Woodhall lost his job of 18 years, as an aerospace engineer for Northrop Grumman. He once worked on hydraulics systems for the B-2 Stealth bomber.

After leaving Northrop Grumman, Woodhall and his wife, Johnnie, took up emu ranching, raising 150 of the large, flightless Australian birds at their home. Recently, Klotz said, Woodhall had begun teaching inmates in rehabilitation programs at the California City Correctional Center.