Born and raised in Ligonier, a small town in the Laurel Highlands of Western Pennsylvania, Louise Irwin was the oldest of a family of six. She was graduated from Juniata College in 1934 and returned to her hometown to teach school until her marriage to Carson B. Woods.

After his early death in 1953, she again entered the classroom and took great delight in working with elementary students, particularly in the areas of reading and math.

She received two master's degrees, one in archival studies from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Libraries were the key to realms of information and she enjoyed going to some of the best from the American Antiquarian Society in Worchester, Massachusetts, and the Library Company in Philadelphia, to the Carolinana Library.

Her daughter, Jeanie, a 1973 Carolina graduate who started the fund, notes that some of her earliest memories are visiting libraries with her mother. She notes that, "Her life was engaged in a continuing education and exchange of ideas, a constant replenishing of mind and spirit. There were always three or more books from the library in the house."

Mrs. Woods was a long-time first grade teacher and her love of children and the significance of reading in one's everyday life, inspired her to do volunteer work with various libraries and to provide books to youngsters. She felt that libraries define and enrich a community while expanding the horizons of their users.