Greta Woodrew

Greta Andron Woodrew Smolowe (December 16, 1929 September 1, 2010) was an author, psychic and healer, and purported contactee of extraterrestrial beings. Her books, On a Slide of Light and Memories of Tomorrow, and newsletter, The Woodrew Update, addressed her purported alien encounters, while her foundation, the Space Technology and Research Foundation (STAR), was established to carry out philanthropic work, including broadcasting messages she received from alien life; and the Sierra Club Foundation. Woodrew also published a children's book in her lifetime entitled Hear the Colors! See the Music!: A Tomorrow Book for Today. Some of her papers are held in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University.

Personal life Woodrew was married to Richard E. "Dick" Smolowe. They had four children together, Allan, Jonathan, Jill, and Ann. Woodrew was the granddaughter of Alexander Schlang and Blanche Cohen-Schlang-Nirenstein, the latter of whom was deeply involved in social and charity work in New York. Woodrew was the great-granddaughter of David and Wilhemina Cohen, the former of whom was a founder and funder of the Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York City. In 1979, William Penn College granted Woodrew an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. "part of a binary, or twin star, system, which comprises what they call a jorpa, and we call a solar system, of five planets in another galaxy." Woodrew claimed the five planets were called Ogatta, Arshan, Arka, Mennon, and Tchowvie. (The Saucer Life podcast; March 18, 2020 episode; 8:26)

The "leading medical doctor and scientist" through whom Woodrew had initial extraterrestrial contact was doctor, medical inventor, and medical and parapsychological researcher Andrija Puharich. The experiments the two undertook, leading to Woodrew's alien contacts, took place at what Puharich called Lab Nine on his estate in Ossining, New York.

During her lifetime, Woodrew also had contact with author and psychical researcher Harold Morrow Sherman; she and husband Dick Smolowe visited Sherman at least once at his home, Ark Haven, in Arkansas.

Healing abilities Woodrew claimed to be a healer, with extraterrestrials' healing abilities channeled through her. One such instance of healing was for ballerina Virginia Rich Barnett for whom Woodrew, "in minutes, cured [...] of a knee injury so severe doctors told her she would never even exercise again, let alone dance."

The Woodrew Update Woodrew and husband Dick Smolowe began their newsletter, The Woodrew Update, in 1980. They continued publishing it until 1997. Additionally, her life and career were covered in the March 18, 2020 episode of podcast The Saucer Life. Her books are still in circulation. Woodrew's son, Alan, went on to earn an MBA from Lehigh University, a PhD from the University of Orlando, and an Ed.D. from Barry University. Son Jonathan and daughter Jill attended Princeton, and daughter Ann graduated from Dartmouth. Jill became a journalist, holding the post of foreign affairs writer for Time and Newsweek. She also served as a senior writer for People and published two books, Four Funerals and a Wedding: Resilience in a Time of Grief and An Empty Lap: One Couple’s Journey to Parenthood. On A Slide of Light (1981), MacMillan Publishers