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updated January 19, 2010
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Alumnus Dean Woodward is a Winner in Television Game Show's
"Hot Seat"
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Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology alumnus Dean Woodward walked away a
$5,000 winner as a contestant in the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" hot seat on
the January 18th episode of the popular syndicated television show.
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On The Hot Seat: Dean Woodard, a 1989 Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology alumnus, will have a chance to win $1 million dollars on the "Who
Wants to be a Millionaire" syndicated television show being broadcast on
Monday, January 18. |
The show, featuring host Meredith Vieira, gives contestants an opportunity
to win a million dollars by correctly answering a series of multiple choice
questions with an escalating value.
"It was a wonderful, but nerve-wracking, experience," states Woodward, a
1989 chemical engineering alumnus. "The pressure in the hot seat is
intense, mainly because of the timer. Even though the questions in the
early rounds are easier, you can't take time to think and be sure, so that
usually burn lifelines early."
Woodward used his "Ask the Audience" lifeline to correctly answer the $5,000
question (Category: 2009 Movies; Question: What would be the title of the
2009 film "Julie & Julia" if it used the first names of the actresses in the
title roles? Answer: Amy & Meryl) and used his "Ask The Expert" (journalist/author Rene Syler)
to successfully answer the $12,500 question (Category: Sitcoms; Question:
Which of these TV comedies features a boss credited with popularizing the
catch phrase "That's what she said"? Answer: The Office).
Then, getting to the $15,000 level, Woodward used his "Double Dip" lifeline
on a question from the category Bird Brains. It asked "Also know as
corvids, what highly intelligent birds have even been known to use tools?"
The choices were: A. Parrots, B. Penguins, C. Owls, D. Crows. His
first guess was Owls, which was incorrect. His next guess was Parrots,
which was also incorrect.
That meant the game was over for Woodward, who fell back to the $5,000 level
for his winnings.
"On the two questions where I used lifelines, they were both pop culture
(movies and TV). I had no idea in either case, so I was happy to make
good use of the lifelines," he said. "I remember telling Meredith (Vieira)
during the last commercial break that I thought things were going well, and
that I had a feeling that I could make a deep run. Alas, it was not
meant to be. There were a couple of interesting things about the
question I got wrong: first, I wouldn't have attempted the question if I
hadn't had the Double Dip lifeline, because I thought I could narrow the
question down to parrots and owls, but would not have guessed between the
two. Second, I had been studying the Jeopardy archive
(www.j-archive.com) to prepare for the show and was about two hours of study
time away from a question on corvids/crows, which would have given me the
answer. Had I been able to get the wireless Internet in my hotel to
work either night (during the December New York City taping), I would have
likely known the answer. Such is life."
Woodward lives in Chapel Hill, N.C.,
and is an intellectual property legal counsel for RTI International, based
in Raleigh, N.C. He and his wife, Vanessa, have two sets of fraternal twins (Julian and
Dylan, eight years old, and Kelsey and Connor, three years old) and three
dogs -- creating a noisy and chaotic household. Woodward says he definitely
owes Vanessa some flowers for “shouldering the load” with the household
while he was in New York City.
Woodward plans donate 100
percent of his winnings -- possibly matched by Vanessa's employer,
GlaxoSmithKline -- to two children’s hospitals: Shriners Children’s Hospital
in Springfield, MA (where his father was treated as a kid for Polio) and
Duke Children’s Hospital in Durham, N.C. (where his four kids were born, all
premature).
After graduating from Rose-Hulman, Woodward served as project lead engineer
for Westinghouse from 1989-93, and he obtained a professional engineer’s
license. He then attended business and law school at the University of North
Carolina, passing the North Carolina bar exam in 1997 and being successful
in the patent bar examination in 2000.
He has also worked as staff attorney
for Mobius Group, a financial software company in Raleigh’s Research
Triangle Park, and had internships during graduate school with EnSys
Environmental Products and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Woodward received Rose-Hulman's 2009 Jess R. Lucas Alumni Leadership Award
in recognition to his career success after serving as a Resident Assistant
and Sophomore Advisor on the college's residence life staff.
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