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Dorothy Wolfe (English Teacher) VIEW PROFILE

Dorothy Wolfe (English Teacher)

Longtime Dearborn High School teacher dies at 101

 


Former Dearborn High School English teacher Dorothy Wolfe died Saturday, April 16, 2016, after a brief illness. She was 101. Photo courtesy of David Good

With her flaming red hair and self-assured personality, Dorothy V. Wolfe never failed to make an impression on students at Dearborn High School during the three decades she taught English there.

In later years, she prided herself on her knack for remembering most of her 10,000 or so former students – and for being able to relate well with many of them a half-century and more after she had them in class.

Miss Wolfe, as she preferred to be called, died at 101 on April 16, 2016, at an assisted living home in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. She had been ill for only a week before her death.

“Dorothy Wolfe was a commanding, demanding presence whose reputation preceded her and whose legacy of teaching and keeping current with her students and colleagues and her family will succeed her,” said Paul Ganson of Dearborn.

Lynne Jackson of Northville said she vividly remembers her first encounter with Miss Wolfe:

“I walked into my 11th-grade lit class, and there in the doorway, personally greeting each student, stood Miss Wolfe. She was wearing purple velvet ballet shoes, a bright, emerald green dress, and she had the most amazing red hair I'd ever seen. Her hair was matched by her bright red lipstick, smiling below a pair of twinkling eyes as she herded us in with a robust: ‘Come in, come in!’”

Jackson described the experience as an “amazing class where every kid got their like-it-or-not first acquaintance with the classical world of English prose and poetry. Bottom line: We all learned the material, even the jocks.”

“She came to our 50th class reunion in 2010,” said David Good of Dearborn, “and the queue of old students at her table lasted all evening. I kept trying to take her back to her condo starting at 9:30, and I couldn’t get her to leave till almost midnight. She had such a great time seeing her old ‘kids,’ she just didn’t want it to end.

“She also was game to go out for a beer and a burger. A few of us would ask her out occasionally, and she always seemed to have a good time sharing stories – and political opinions.”

Known for her strong pacifist convictions as well as her flamboyant appearance, Miss Wolfe taught at Dearborn High from 1948 through 1981. She lived in Dearborn from 1948 until moving to Upper Sandusky in 2013 to be closer to relatives. She let her hair revert to its natural white only a few years ago.

Miss Wolfe was born in Seneca County, Ohio, on July 18, 1914, the eldest of seven children of Harley J. and Virginia Holmes Wolf. She graduated in 1930, at age 15, from Bloomville High School, Bloomville, Ohio, and earned a bachelor’s degree at Bowling Green State University in 1937.

She then began her teaching career at Salem Township School, near Carey, Ohio. In 1942, after the onset of World War II, she took a three-year hiatus from education to work for the War Department in Dayton, Ohio; she went back to teaching in 1945 in Maumee, Ohio, before moving to Dearborn.

During her 33 years in Dearborn, she became an enthusiastic world traveler, taking two sabbaticals to teach English on board a “floating university” at sea. She also earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan.

Miss Wolfe chaired the Dearborn United Nations Day celebration for several years during the 1970s, and she was a member of the Dearborn Historical Society and the Dearborn branch of the American Association of University Women. At Dearborn High, she was faculty sponsor of the Junior Red Cross.

Survivors include a sister, Edith Loverich, 97, of Valparaiso, Ind., and a sister-in-law, Alice Wolf of Carey, in addition to many nieces, nephews and other relatives.

Services are scheduled for noon Thursday at Bringman-Clark Funeral Home in Upper Sandusky, following visitation beginning at 10 a.m. Burial will be at Oak Hill Cemetery, near Upper Sandusky.

The family suggests that tax-deductible memorials be made to the Museum Guild of Dearborn, P.O. Box 2725, Dearborn, MI 48128.

*****

(Source:  Dearborn Press & Guide, Tuesday, April 19, 2016)





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