He joined the museum's education department as a guide lecturer in 1938.
His career was interrupted by a four-year period of duty with the United States Navy during World War II.
[1] While he was in the navy, Marion Griswold Grey served as the unpaid curator, becoming an associate at the museum when Woods resumed his post.
[2] During his time at the Field Museum, he assembled specimen collections of North American freshwater fish and Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean marine fish.
[3] This material resulted in a major expansion of the museum's fishes holdings, which had previously been a mostly freshwater collection.