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Edward Torchy Smith
This is what I received from Jim Wolson's wife , DALE:
There was never a formal obituary nor a funeral for Jim. He was a cadaver donation. I have held two memorials for him, one in Sarasota and one in Ann Arbor and will be holding a third in Chambersburg, PA, where we lived for 18 years, in September. I'll try to make this short.
Jim Wolfson passed away on November 18, 2015 in Sarasota, Florida. Although he had been ill for several months, his death was still unexpected.
After leaving Shaker Heights High School in 1968, Jim attended the University of Michigan, receiving degrees in industrial engineering and an MBA in accounting. At Michigan he met me ,his wife, Dale Marder Wolfson, and we were married for 45 years.
We lived in several places during those 45 years, including Tucson, Sarasota, Cleveland and Chambersburg, PA. It was in Chambersburg that Jim had some of his greatest achievements. He became what you could call a big fish in a very small pond. Chambersburg has the dubious distinction of being the only town in the North that was burned to the ground by the Confederacy after they came demanding money and the townspeople refused to pay. Jim immersed himself in the Civil War history of the area and gave much time to the minority and Jewish community. He was responsible for restoring the historic Jewish cemetery in Chambersburg, where the only Confederate Jewish soldier can be found buried in a northern cemetery, and relentlessly sought and received five historical markers for the borough. After writing several grants and starting in 2004, Jim was the executive director of a federally funded after-school program for students at risk in the Chambersburg Area School District, where he touched the lives of many children and their families.
Jim was always grateful for the experiences he had growing up in Shaker Heights and credited his education with allowing him to impact so many people in such a positive way.
Our children, Rebecca and Mandy, and I miss him very much, but we take great comfort in knowing that his life had meaning for many. We are grateful that he had the years he had to live the life he lived.
Dale Wolfson
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