Iris Woolcock

Iris Woolcock was an artist, photographer, realtor and adventuress. Born in Wisconsin in the late 1800s; she died in 1980. Iris lived in Putney (Vermont), New York City, and in later years in Warm Mineral Springs, Florida.

Life

Iris was an incredibly vibrant person who lived life to its fullest. She had so many interests, she never quite managed to settle down and really stick with any of them - art, journalism, photography, or her diving. Iris was a great believer in good nutrition and preventative medicine. She always wore a glamorous wide-brimmed hat, lots of makeup and drove a bright red Ford convertible until her death.

She had so many interests, she never quite managed to settle down and really stick with any of them - art, journalism, photography, or her diving. She, at one time, tried to have her Alaska travels published, but had started other projects before she passed the text on to her publisher. She was also an accomplished artist, painting a portrait of Liza Minnelli's father and spending a lot of time in Central America photographing the fruit plantations for a big company.

For all her adventuring, she was a very private person. She had one son but never remarried after a divorce early in life. Though, she counted amongst her close friends Buckminster Fuller and Ellsworth Bunker.

At the age of 67 she set a deep dive record at Warm Mineral Springs. Her account of her adventure to Alaska was finally published 10 years after her death, in 1990, called "The Road North: One Woman's Adventure Driving the Alaska Highway 1947-1948", it was published by Greatland Graphics.

Iris was, above all else, a renaissance woman far ahead of her time.