Woody Hemphill was born, and attended school, at Newcastle, NSW. He entered Wesley College, within the University of Sydney, in 1937 and graduated MB BS in 1942. He was an RMO at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, in 1942 and 1943 and married Betty Degotardi, a fellow medical graduate, in 1943. Woody enlisted as a captain in the AAMC in 1943 and saw active service with the AIF in the New Guinea campaign of World War II. After demobilisation he entered general medical practice in Cardiff and Wallsend, NSW. Here his children, Peter and Susan, were born. During the next seven years Woody taught himself family medicine, and developed his empathy with children, in his practice.

Woody's father was American. This gave Woody dual citizenship and influenced him to seek further experience in the USA. In 1953 to 1954 Woody was a Fellow in paediatric cardiology in Helen Taussig's unit at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. In 1955 he moved to England to an appointment as registrar in paediatrics at the Alder Hay Hospital, Liverpool. He was awarded the DCH London in 1956. In 1957 he returned to Baltimore to the post of director of the Bureau of School Health in that city, with a lectureship in public health administration and a clinical paediatric appointment at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Woody and his family returned to Sydney in 1961. He was appointed deputy director of the School Medical Service, NSW, and specialist physician, Department of Public Health, NSW. For eight years he was the assistant director of the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, and from 1978, principal adviser, Maternal and Child Health, and senior specialist in the Health Commission of NSW. From 1968 he held a clinical appointment in neurology at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Camperdown, NSW. In 1978 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in recognition of his services to paediatrics.

Woody became an administrator at a time when parents began to expect more specialised medical care for their children and the discipline of paediatrics was becoming established in Australia. As the result of his efforts, more child health centres were built, ranks of the school medical service were expanded, in-service training courses proliferated, the educational handicaps of deafness and specific learning difficulties were addresses and more "at risk" children were identified.

Woody had been in general practice during the period when the family doctor was still expected to bear the major responsibility for the new-born, the children, the adolescents and all the problems of parenthood. As a result he was much concerned that the activities of his department did not intrude harmfully in the relationship between children and their family doctor; a policy which did not always endear him to his public service colleagues. He was always testing the motives of the people who exercised power in the health field and scornful of the pompous.

As "Uncle Woody" he was welcomed by the sons and daughters of his friends. He was gifted in his relationship with children, both well and sick. He spoke to them as equals and as equals they responded, frankly and with ease. With friends and colleagues he was a warm and generous host who enjoyed the sharing of a bottle of wine, a spirited discussion and the exchange of earthy, and sometimes wicked, anecdotes. He was proud of the academic achievements of his beloved wife Betsy and rejoiced in the equality of their life-long relationship and the interest they shared in their work at the Children's Hospital, Camperdown. In retirement Woody found pleasure in his workshop with his clocks and the spasmodic campaign he waged against nature in his garden. And he maintained close contact with his friends and family until the day he died.