Tribute paid to Wakefield magistrate and Methodist preacher helped establish to care home in Ossett and was Rotary club president

Donald Woolley died in Dewsbury District Hospital, at the age of 81 on April 28.

His son Richard Woolley contacted the Express with this tribute.

Donald was born in Halfway, Derbyshire, the fourth child of Ernest and Ivy.

He attended primary school in Halfway and secondary modern in Killamarsh.

Donald’s father was adamant that none of his children should work with him in coal mining.

He gained an apprenticeship as a butcher in the neighbouring village of Mosborough.

In 1964 Donald went to Cliff College. There he studied for his Methodist Local Preachers’ examinations.

In 1965 he joined the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, at its centre in Hull.

This was a thriving and busy fishing port with a great deal of social work to do with fishermen and their families.

He married Dorothy in November that year. Donald wore his Missioners uniform for the wedding, and Dorothy often reflected that by marrying Donald she also married the Mission.

In effect they committed themselves to each other and to a marriage that was characterised by service to others.

In 1968 Donald was one of two Mission staff involved breaking news to bereaved families during the Triple Trawler Tragedy in Hull.

In Hull, their first son Richard was born.

The family was then stationed on the north-west coast of Scotland in Ullapool, where their second son John was born in Inverness.

In 1974 Donald moved with Dorothy, Richard and John to Ossett moving into the Shaftesbury Society’s partially built York House care home and overseeing its completion, with the first residents arriving in May 1975.

In the first week three residents arrived and over time the home grew and flourished.

The work at York House became embedded within the community in Ossett.

Whether or not anyone realised it, the approach was innovative in terms of supported independent living for young people with life-limiting disabilities, and well ahead of its time.

For Donald it was a part of seeing the best in people, recognising potential where no one had done so before, and working tirelessly to help the residents attain a quality of life that often extended well beyond thelife expectancy they had been told to expect as children and teenagers.

His training on bereavement for staff and also as a night school course in Wakefield local authority, was characterised for its laughter as much as its consideration of empathy and compassion.

Donald was a Methodist Local Preacher for almost 60 years, 53 of them in active service.

He was a longstanding member of the Ossett Rotary Club, including serving as its president.

Rotary acknowledged his contribution to the community with a Paul Harris Fellowship, and Donald was the embodiment of the Rotary motto: “Service Above Self.”

Fellow Rotarians have described him as “a true Christian gentlemen” and “the conscience of the club.”

He often spoke up for fairness, justice and equity.

He served as a Justice of the Peace on the Wakefield Bench, and was a highly regarded magistrate and chair of the panel.

Donald was husband to Dorothy, father to John and Richard, father-in-law to Joanna and granddad to Ted.

Donations in Donald’s memory will be donated to The Fishermen’s Mission.