Robert Winship Woodruff (December 6, 1889- March 7, 1985) was the president of The Coca-Cola Company from 1923 until 1954. With his enormous Coke fortune, he was also a major philanthropolist and many educational and cultural landmarks in Atlanta, Georgia bear his name.
Woodruff was born in Columbus, Georgia. He attended the Oxford, Georgia campus of Emory University for one term, but never graduated. Woodruff entered the business arena as a salesman at General Fire Extinguisher, then at Atlantic Ice Company. He went on to work as a salesman for White Motor Company in Cleveland, Ohio and quickly rose to become vice president of that company. His father Ernest Woodruff led a group of investors who bought Coca-Cola from Asa Griggs Candler in 1919. When the company got into finacial difficulty, the board elected Robert Woodruff as president at the age of 33. Woodruff built Coca-Cola into an international company, establishing a foreign department in 1926. He stepped down as president in 1954, but remained on the board of directors until 1984. He died in 1985.
In 1979, Woodruff and his brother gave $105 million toEmory University. In total he gave $230 million dollars to Emory. Several buildings on the Emory campus are named for him and members of his family. He also gave large sums of money to other area colleges and universities. Atlanta's largest cultural institution, the Woodruff Arts Center benefited from his gifts and is named for him.