Howard Wolfe

Fankel:  Good morning. I will ask you to begin by stating your full name, place and date of your birth.
WOLFE:  My full name is Howard Frank Wolfe. I was born in Portland, Oregon on September 3, 1919. I am 89 years old at the present moment.

Frankel: Can you tell us about your early childhood: where you lived in Portland and who lived in your house?
WOLFE: Well, we had a house, which is a part of Portland State now. It is called the Harder House. Mr. Harder bought it from my folks. Now it is called the System. That is where all the programs come from at Portland State. It is on the corner of 10th and Market – 1604 SW 10th Avenue. I can give you the phone number too [laughs], but the phone has been disconnected. The household [included] my mother and my father and my older brother.

Frankel: Can you name them?
WOLFE: I certainly can. My father was Simon Wolfe. My mother was Carolyn Solomon Wolfe. My brother was Alfred S. Wolfe. He made a lot of hurdles for me to go through. He skipped two grades in grammar school and I plodded through them all. 

Frankel: Were any grandparents living?
WOLFE: Oh, yes. Now my grandfather Wolfe had already passed away. He passed away in about 1919, I believe. My grandfather Solomon, Samuel Solomon, whom my father went into business with later on, had a millinery shop. They had women’s hats and that sort of thing. It was called the Wonder Millinery.

Frankel: Where was that located?
WOLFE: Where Lipman and Wolfe was (that is gone!). It was on the corner Alder and Broadway. It was where Lipman and Wolfe later took over the whole thing.

Frankel: What about your paternal grandmother?
WOLFE: Ah! One of the most interesting women you would ever meet. She is Ricka Wolfe and she lived until 1923.

Frankel: Do you remember her?
WOLFE: Oh, yes. Now Harry Wolfe, my grandfather who passed away, had eight children. But only three lived to maturity: my father, his twin Sadie Miller, and Jake Wolfe, who lived in Vancouver.

Frankel: Was your grandfather the one who came to this country?
WOLFE: Oh, no. He came up … remember in Jewish history, the law [of] primogenitor, the oldest boy gets 90%. So he was given $50 and sent to Oregon.

Frankel: From where?
WOLFE: From San Francisco. My grandfather came from Poland. It was in that place where one week it would be in Russia and the next week in Germany. He came. They went around the Horn and got to San Francisco. Like many Jewish families, they taught the boys to sew. So when he got of age, he came to Portland.

Frankel: That was Harry Wolfe.
WOLFE: Harry Wolfe. Now he came into Portland and opened an overall factory and made overalls. He was right next to Meier & Frank, which was on the corner. He was in the middle of the block, on Stark Street.

Frankel: Let me just clarify for a minute. Was Harry Wolfe the one who came from Poland?
WOLFE: Oh, no. His father came from Poland.

Frankel: That was your great-grandfather.
WOLFE: Yes, my great-grandfather. I know very little of him.

Frankel: Was Harry Wolfe born in San Francisco?
WOLFE: Yes.

Frankel: How many siblings did he have?
WOLFE: Marcus was his brother. Of that part of the family I know very little.

Frankel: When Harry Wolfe came to Portland was he married already?
WOLFE: Hmmm. Yes he was. My grandmother Wolfe lived to be within a week of her 100th birthday. But when she saw that the three were adults, she went back. She had a house right on Market Street. She went back.

Frankel: After her husband died? 
WOLFE: After her husband died. The very interesting thing about Ricka was that she played poker every afternoon, with all Jewish women. At the Mark Hopkins [this hotel is in San Francisco]. They had a room reserved for them. I was a little kid. I would sit in the corner and watch them play poker. They would not buy chips. They used matches.

Frankel: Where was it they played?
WOLFE: At Mark Hopkins Hotel.

Frankel: Which was where?
WOLFE: Where is has always been. It is still in existence today. It is on Market Street. I can’t give you the address, but it is a big hotel.

Frankel: You said she was a remarkable woman. Was that because she was playing poker or were there other things as well?
WOLFE: [laughing] No. She was a kind, considerate woman who was interested in civil affairs and so on. Like many other Jewish women, she got involved in local affairs. We tried to sell the house; her house had a common wall with the house behind her. She is sitting facing Market Street and the other house, with its basement and Ricka’s basement the same! (So you had to be pretty friendly with the neighbors).

Frankel: Was she American-born?
WOLFE: Oh, yes. She was born in San Francisco.

Frankel: What languages did they speak.
WOLFE: Well, Ricka spoke German beautifully and she also knew a little French. My grandfather Wolfe knew Yiddish (and of course, Ricka knew Yiddish, too).

Frankel: Was Ricka’s family originally from Germany?
WOLFE: Yes.

Frankel: In your household, what languages were spoken?
WOLFE: Just English.

Frankel: And your maternal grandparents?
WOLFE: Now, Samuel Solomon was a very distinguished gentleman. He lived to be… His wife Fanny Solomon, they came from Baltimore, Maryland. My mother was born in Baltimore.

Frankel: Did you know your maternal grandparents?
WOLFE: Oh, yes.

Frankel: Did they move here?
WOLFE: My grandfather came here and started a store at quite an early age.

Frankel: Was that the millinery?
WOLFE: That was the Wonder Millinery.

Frankel: Tell me a little about education. Were your parents educated?
WOLFE: They all finished high school. My brother started college. He and Frank Meier and Mayer Swett were riding up to a football game in Seattle, the Oregon/Washington football game, and they hit ice and the car spun around. Frank Meier, who was driving, got a little bump in the head. My brother got a compound fractured skull and was in the hospital almost a year. Well, he wasn’t there for a year, but he was unconscious for almost a month and a half. I interrupted my schooling and went up there and sat with him, as did my parents. Then we brought him back and put him in Good Sam Hospital. He recovered. He wasn’t the same person. We know so little about the brain. It did change his personality quite a bit.

Frankel: Beyond high school, did your parents or grandparents go to college?
WOLFE: No, they didn’t. So Al, my brother, was the first to go to college and then, of course, I graduated from Reed.

Frankel: So there were just the two of you?
WOLFE: Just the two of us. Now I will tell you something interesting. The old Congregation Beth Israel was on Main Street. It was a beautiful, wooden structure and someone set it on fire. Living on 10th Street, my mother grabbed me and brought me up to the attic. She said, “There is a terrible fire over there.” Then it dawned on us that that was the synagogue going up. We had a caretaker, a shammes. His name was Olson. He grabbed the torahs and ran out, but he was burned quite badly.

Frankel: How old were you?
WOLFE: I think I was four or five. They will tell you at Beth Israel that we are 150 years old. Somedays I feel like it [laughs]. Seriously, I would say I was four or five. I remember the flames and the smoke. Up in the attic we could look right down on it.

Frankel: Tell me a little about Jewish life in your family.
WOLFE: Well the interesting part is that my grandfather Wolfe, who I never met, started Ahavai Sholom. He was the first president of the shul. Then, later on, our family became Reform and I went to Sunday school with Rabbi Berkowitz. At Temple Beth Israel.

Frankel: And at home, could you tell that it was a Jewish home?
WOLFE: Oh, yes. We had Friday night, light the candles. We had a mogen David over the door.

Frankel: On the outside door or the inside door?
WOLFE: On the inside. Just as we have one here.

Frankel: And holidays?
WOLFE: Well, we came to the holidays. Of course, being a merchant, Christmas was very important to my father, who was a fine gentleman but the world’s worst businessman. He would give his shirt away if one would demand it. The interesting thing is that in 1929 and 30, the Depression, my mother and father and my brother and I. The parents said I am [we are] going to give you a budget. Now her name was Carolyn but everybody called her Carrie. So she had this budget and we couldn’t figure out why every month she went way over what we allotted for food. Then I stayed home one day with a cold or something and here she had a line at the back door. She was feeding, I’ll bet you, 30 or 40 men in the depths of the Depression. We were right downtown on 10th and Market.

Frankel: What are the images that you have of the Depression years?
WOLFE: Well, I guess the first thing is that my grandfather Solomon gave me $5000 to go to college. That was it. But he put it in the Hibernia Bank, which went kaput! I can remember the people lining up at the back door being fed almost every day. My mother couldn’t refuse anything. My father went through four or five businesses, all bankrupt.

Frankel: What kind of businesses? Was it always the same?
WOLFE: Always the same. The Wonder Millinery. The final move was from 4th and Alder up to across from … up to about 6th and Alder.

Frankel: What were the names of all these stores.
WOLFE: Wonder Millinery. They kept the same name.

Frankel: And you said your father went into business with …
WOLFE: With my grandfather, that’s right.

Frankel: Were they considered comfortable, wealthy?
WOLFE: Yes they were. Because at one time, my grandfather Solomon built a gorgeous beach house at Gearhart, Oregon. About four doors down was the Shemanski house. Behind it was the Blitz house.

Frankel: Who were the Blitzes?
WOLFE: You are not a beer drinker!

Frankel: That’s what I thought, is it the beer? So would he invite you all to go down?
WOLFE: Yes, my father would come back to work in the store. My mother and I would be at the beach. One of the best jobs I ever had was being a lifeguard at the Gearhart Hotel, which Meier & Frank owned at the time. And Johnny Osburn purchased it and tore it down. Now it is called Gearhart by the Sea, which reminds me of a _______[can’t hear] but anyway.

Frankel: Going back to Jewish life, for the holidays would you all get together with the grandparents?
WOLFE: Oh, my mother would have a big holiday meal for everyone. You see, my grandfather Solomon, after his wife died, remarried. My mother and his second wife were not compatible. OK, that is a nice way to put it [laughs].

Frankel: I see. So would you still get together?
WOLFE: Oh, yes.

Frankel: What holidays would you celebrate?
WOLFE: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Passover. My mother would have the Seder.

Frankel: Can you associate dishes or special foods that you would have?
WOLFE: My mother had a routine. I never needed a calendar. On Monday we had this, on Tuesday, that. And it was always the same. My mother always had a maid. We had a maid who didn’t speak much. I remember her. I think she was quite mentally retarded. She could clean and iron and so on. 

Frankel: Was she American?
WOLFE: Oh, yes.

Frankel: So back to the holidays. Can you associate dishes with Friday nights, or with Passover?
WOLFE: Oh, sure. 

Frankel: What was it like?
WOLFE: Oh, you know, they hid the afikomen.

Frankel: And did your mother prepare special foods?
WOLFE: Well, it wasn’t a ham [laughs]. No, she would have most of the time, roast beef. And she made the most marvelous cakes. I haven’t eaten a dessert myself in about 40 years but she could make a cake with about five layers.

Frankel: Where did you go to elementary school?
WOLFE: I went to Ladd School. Now Ladd School was a wooden structure which they tore down. The basement of the Art Museum. That was where Ladd School was.

Frankel: Was it a public school?
WOLFE: It was a public school. I had the distinction of having to follow my brother. “Oh, I remember him. He was so bright; so intelligent.” I got expelled in my first year.

Frankel: [laughing] Why?
WOLFE: I will explain. Ladd School had about 12 or 14 steps. Every year, at the beginning of the year, they took pictures of the class. I am at the very top because it was my first or second year at Ladd. This boy started picking on me because I wore glasses and there were few kids that wore glasses in those days. And I pushed him and I guess I pushed him too hard and he knocked a whole row all the way down. The next thing, I felt the gentle arm of the principal taking me into his office. He called my mother and said, “Get this…” I don’t know what he called me, but anyway, that was my first experience. Now, they tore down Ladd School and I moved up to Shattuck, which is a part of Portland State now.

Frankel: Do you recall your teacher from Ladd School?
WOLFE: Yes, her name was Armstrong. Let me tell you, her arm was strong with a ruler. “Bang” if you got out of line. And then we had the Palmer Method of drawing teaching us how to write properly. Well, I don’t write very well today. It’s hard to read it [laughs]. But Mrs. Armstrong is the only one I remember because she was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. She could really… And then of course, if you talked too much in class, you were put in the cloak room. In Ladd School the kids would come in and hang their coats up in the cloak room.

Frankel: Were there many other Jewish kids in your school?
WOLFE: Oh, yes. At Ladd School there was the greatest mixture of Indians, Asians, just about any nationality you could think of.

Frankel: Did those kids live downtown?
WOLFE: Yes. Then when I moved up to Shattuck School. That was practically all Jewish students from South Portland.

Frankel: What are your recollections of South Portland? Would you go shopping there?
WOLFE: You must remember that all the downtown, at 10th and Market when my father built his house, along with my uncle who built a similar house, my grandfather Solomon said, “Where are you out in the… you better get protection from the Indians!” Because 10th Street was way out from 4th and Front. 

Oh, Nancy has, I believe, an IOU from Meier & Frank to my father for a very minor amount. I don’t know the amount. I thought it was maybe $100 to meet the payroll for one month.

Frankel: And how is Nancy related to you?
WOLFE: She is my niece. She is the daughter of Alfred Wolfe, my brother, and there is also Elaine Wolfe. There were two sisters. And I had two sons.

Frankel: Did your maternal grandfather live in South Portland?
WOLFE: He lived in the Sovereign Hotel, which is right out here.

Frankel: He lived in a hotel?
WOLFE: In the Sovereign Apartment House, I beg your pardon. That was the best place in town. It is on the corner of Jefferson, between Main and Market.

Frankel: Before first grade was there kindergarten?
WOLFE: No, you started with the first grade.

Frankel: So you stayed home until that time?
WOLFE: Yes. But I could read very early in life.

Frankel: And religious school?
WOLFE: I went to Beth Israel religious school.

Frankel: From what age on? Was it very young?
WOLFE: No, I think it was about first grade.

Frankel: And did you ever go to the Neighborhood House?
WOLFE: Sure! I played basketball at the Neighborhood House. And where the Portland Center Stage is now, used to be the Armory. That is where the National Guard were. I played basketball there, too. 

Frankel: And at the Neighborhood House?
WOLFE: And at the Neighborhood House, and there was another circuit of Christian Schools. They had basketball teams and we played against them.

Frankel: Were there also Hebrew lessons given at the Neighborhood House?
WOLFE: If there were I never took them.

Frankel: What about the JCC?
WOLFE: I can remember the beautiful woman who ran the Jewish Community Center, Rose something, along with Harry Policar.

Frankel: Back to a Jewish home. If someone were to walk into your home growing up, could one tell that it was a Jewish home?
WOLFE: [pause] I doubt it.

Frankel: Do you remember books of Jewish content?
WOLFE: Yes. But my mother had a grand piano down on the main floor.

Frankel: Who played the piano?
WOLFE: My mother.

Frankel: Was she trained?
WOLFE: She was trained in Baltimore before she was married. 

Frankel: Did any of you boys play?
WOLFE: No, I didn’t. I was too interested in sports, playing baseball and tennis and basketball.

Frankel: Is that what you did besides school? And on weekends?
WOLFE: Yes. I played a lot of tennis.

Frankel: Did you do things together with your family on Sundays?
WOLFE: We would sometimes go for a drive. And in the summer times, my mother would be at the beach, at this enormous beach house. This was no more a “beach house” that my grandfather built. It had, upstairs alone, one, two, three, four, five bedrooms. The maid’s room was downstairs; she had a separate toilet. We had a toilet upstairs. It had a big basement…

Frankel: So would you also spend the summer with your mother there?
WOLFE: Of course, until I was about seven I think. And when the times during the Depression, I got a paper route. It stretched from Front to 10th. And in that were, of course, most of the “houses of ill-repute.” It was a rough neighborhood down there.

Frankel: What paper was it?
WOLFE: The Night Oregonian. There was another paper called the Journal here. But the Oregonian tried to knock the Journal out of business by having a night edition. That was very nice because I didn’t want to get up at five in the morning to deliver the morning paper. Paul Valente, who was the coach at Oregon State, in basketball many years later… I went from Jefferson to Glisan and he had the other part from Glisan on to Vaughn.

Frankel: Did you have to take that job to help your family?
WOLFE: Yes, sure. Then the funny part is that I would get held up by people. That was not the best neighborhood in town, let’s put it that way..

Frankel: How old were your then?
WOLFE: Oh, eight going on nine.

Frankel: And your parents would allow you to do that route?
WOLFE: Oh sure. Listen, I never took it out in trade or anything. All I did was collect. But one of the problems was that these guys would wait for me at the beginning of the month because that was when I would get paid for the paper. So I got smart and I made a whole bunch of envelopes with stamps on them and as soon as I got paid I went and dropped them in a mail box.

Frankel: Were you ever roughed up?
WOLFE: Oh yes, a couple of them threw me to the ground. But I was a kid, nothing broke. [laughs]

Frankel: As a youngster did you ever encounter antisemitism?
WOLFE: Oh, certainly. Mostly there was the Turn Verein. A German Gymnastics [club]. It was on the same street as the old Temple, between Main and Yamhill. An interesting thing: My brother was at the University of Oregon and his roommate was Dick Neuberger. Dick was a reporter at the Oregonian before he became a Senator. He had a very charming wife, Maureen. She was my high school teacher at Lincoln.

Frankel: Remember I asked about antisemitism.
WOLFE: Yes, the antisemitism. I couldn’t understand all this bit about Santa Claus and all that mishegas. I think it was quite prevalent, but it wasn’t at Lincoln because the majority of us were Jewish.

Frankel: You mentioned the German gymnastics. Did you ever have run-ins with them?
WOLFE: Well, we beat them very badly in basketball and they didn’t like that. But other than that, there were certain clubs that you just didn’t belong to.

Frankel: And you just accepted that?
WOLFE: Oh, certainly. What are you going to do? You can’t fight City Hall, you know.

Frankel: Did you have a bar mitzvah?
WOLFE: No. We had Confirmation from Rabbi Berkowitz.

Frankel: Was religious school a good experience for you?
WOLFE: I consider it a waste of time. [laughs] But I have always been interested in learning and in science and medicine. It is always interesting to know your history and your family background.

Frankel: Did you still have family who remained in Europe?
WOLFE: No. I’m sure there were. Part of the Wolfe family. Now, the original Wolf was without an “e.” What happened was that my father’s brother Jake, who lived in Vancouver and ran three houses. We considered him the “black sheep in the Wolf family.”

Frankel: Why?
WOLFE: Well, he had gambling and liquor.

Frankel: Oh, those types of houses.
WOLFE: Yes, exactly. And we never knew his son until… this is another story. Gerry Frank gave a very large party and in walks this guy and my brother and I look at him and say, “Oh no.” His name was Wolf and it was Jake’s son. He was a professional dancer. He married the most beautiful woman. His act was the DeMarcos, on the Pantages circuit. There used to be night clubs in most of the cities. Of course during Prohibition, you hid the bottle under the table. But he was a very nice guy. We didn’t know he existed.

Frankel: So how old were you the first time you met him?
WOLFE: Oh, I was a junior in high school, maybe 16 or 17. And my brother was eight years older than I. Well, the minute he walked in we could see the resemblance. 

Frankel: Did you remain in touch after that?
WOLFE: Yes, every time he came into town. He eventually opened a clothing store in California, [in] San Mateo. Over the years we drifted apart. He would send us Hanukkah blessings and that sort of thing.

Frankel: So after Shattuck School you went to Lincoln. Was that a good experience?
WOLFE: Very. I enjoyed it. I was a straight “A” student. I won a $100 scholarship to Reed.

Frankel: Do you remember any of your teachers or classmates?
WOLFE: Oh, yes. I went to the reunion of my class from Lincoln and there wasn’t one soul there. The only one still alive is Hasson. He was a pharmacist. Well, Bernie Shevak, Milt Hasson, and Jack Rosen just died. But I enjoyed Lincoln. I played basketball, of course, and I was the captain of the tennis team.

Frankel: So you received a scholarship to go to Reed. Is that where you had intended to go?
WOLFE: Yes. Well I couldn’t go to the University of Portland. I am a very poor Catholic [laughs].

Frankel: You said your brother went to the University of Oregon. 
WOLFE: Yes, he and Dick Neuberger were roommates at Oregon, yes. But I couldn’t afford it.

Frankel: You mean that the University of Oregon was more expensive than Reed?
WOLFE: Yes. It was only $300 for a year at Reed. Right now it is $46,000. 

Frankel: Did you live at home?
WOLFE: When I went to Reed I lived at home, before I met that beautiful girl right there behind you.

Frankel: What year did you graduate from high school?
WOLFE: Let’s see. I graduated from Reed in 1940, and I graduated from high school in 1936.

Frankel: So the war hadn’t started yet.
WOLFE: No. And when the war started the Army came and picked me up right away.

Frankel: Had you finished your studies at Reed?
WOLFE: Yes, I graduated from Reed. I wrote a thesis. 

Frankel: What did you major in?
WOLFE: Biology and Chemistry.

Frankel: What did you intend to do?
WOLFE: Go to medical school. But the Army decided that because I had had some very excellent courses at Reed in histology and embryology and physiology, I would go into the Medical Corps. 

Frankel: What did you do?
WOLFE: I was a Technical Sergeant and I was in England in 1941 and ‘42, [during] the bombing. I was at Su___ Hospital in London.

Frankel: When Pearl Harbor was hit?
WOLFE: Yes.

Frankel: Were you in England already?
WOLFE: Yes.

[SIDE 2 begins in the middle of a sentence]

WOLFE: …would give him first a sedative, such as a form of morphine or codeine. And then give him plasma, if we had it, or saline. Of course, we didn’t do matches out in the field. But remember I was a life guard at the beach so I was a pretty damn good swimmer and I had a pack on my back. I don’t get airsick or seasick but all these other poor kids were so seasick. Oh, before the landing. There was nothing I could do for them. We were caught in a German crossfire. But all five of us made it, by keeping our heads down and swimming like crazy. Then I was on my way to Remagen, France [actually Germany]. After the landing at Omaha Beach we were in France. But I was a lousy map reader; I came to one intersection and it said to “go that way” which was wrong because I ended up in a slaughter house, the Holocaust.

Frankel: So you actually saw a concentration camp?
WOLFE: Sure. It was between Remagen and the Beach. It was 30 or 40 miles from the beach. 

Frankel: Had it been liberated already?
WOLFE: No, no! Fortunately, at least I thought it was fortunately, they were all Ukrainians, and a few Catholic fathers were in the group. I gave what I had in the way of medical supplies to them. And, oh, they were a sick-looking bunch. Hell, they had existed, I think, on mud and water. Maybe they passed a boiled potato through it, I don’t know.

Frankel: Had the Germans left already?
WOLFE: No, there were German guards there, with dogs. And the dogs were more vicious than the Germans.

Frankel: So how were you able to help them with supplies?
WOLFE: I had them in the ambulance. Once I got situated — the beach was cleared eventually — they put the ambulances ashore.

Frankel: Was it a Red Cross ambulance?
WOLFE: No, it was an Army ambulance.

Frankel: An American ambulance.
WOLFE: Sure. An old one. They didn’t even have automatic windows. You had to stand up and crank the thing back and forth. Then, of course, at Remagen, there were a few Americans who were….

Frankel: There were prisoners of war there?
WOLFE: Yeas. I found one colonel who was a doctor who was home on leave and walked right into us and I said, “You know, we’re Americans? What are you doing here?” So I turned him over to the combat unit and they…  he was home on leave and we caught up with him. Remagen had a big battle. There were a few Americans killed but the Germans eventually surrendered. Then I got leave and came to New York. A bunch of us went. We all had enough points to get out of the Army. I’ll tell you what was very nice. The day that we landed, we were marched to a performance of Oklahoma.

Frankel: That was in New York?
WOLFE: Right. I don’t think that it had been on too long. We got there for a matinee.

Frankel: This was all the soldiers who came back that day. What year was that?
WOLFE: Well, when was Remagen? It would have been the summer of 1942 or 1943. [Oklahoma! opened on Broadway in March of 1943.]

Frankel: Before you went overseas, were you aware of what was going on in Europe?
WOLFE: Oh, yes.

Frankel: How had you heard? How did you know?
WOLFE: If you could read a paper you would know. It was broadcast. Edward Murrow told it just as it was. So I had a good notion.

Frankel: Did you have to go back to Europe after New York?
WOLFE: No. I thought I was getting out of the Army and I got a nice little letter that said: You are essential to the war effort and are now assigned to the hospital ship Comfort. I thought, better than being out and eating C rations. The rations they gave when I was in Europe were all field rations. They had a layer of lard right on top of them. All I would eat would be the hard candies. When I got back my wife screamed, “My god! How much do you weigh?” I think I weighed about 100 pounds.

Frankel: You had been married before you left?
WOLFE: Oh, yes. I grabbed her from the University of Washington, on my way.

Frankel: How did you meet Fran?
WOLFE: You have heard of Dan Marx & Co? They were jewelers. And Renny Block was the owner and manager. He had a massive cocktail party out at Lake Oswego. That is where I met her. She lied to me and made me …she was older than she really was. She was only 18 or 19 at the time. We have been married now for 68 years. After I got aboard the Hospital ship Comfort a young steward stopped me and asked what are your initials? I thought why would they want to know that? I said, “Young man, why do you want to know my initials?” He said, “We put them on your napkin rings.” [laughs] That was a little contrast to where I had been. Like come Passover time when I was in Europe, by the time I got the food package, the matzos were all matzo meal! [laughter] they were all crumbled. So on the Hospital Ship Comfort we left about a week after I came aboard.

Frankel: Where did you board the ship?
WOLFE: I had to get it at San Diego, Long Beach. I thought, “This is a pretty good life.” I was in charge of the lab and did all of the blood matching, malaria slides, stool specimens. We ended up in Okinawa. Now a hospital ship is all lit up, day and night, with a big red cross on it. We helped the soldiers there. One night I was as far down as you can get, doing malaria slides and I heard this tremendous, “BOOM” (I haven’t heard very well since). A Japanese plane went right down the stack. We had a big, red cross on it and he used that as a target. We lost… there were only two nurses left out of ten. There were two doctors left. The explosion knocked out the surgery on the top deck and the second deck down was for medical, internal problems and a lot of psychiatric problems.

Frankel: But the ship didn’t sink.
WOLFE: No, and what is even more humorous, they towed us to Okinawa and repaired the ship. I was sitting in Okinawa reading and finally, after about a week and a half, we went back to Okinawa and we got an alert: there was a hurricane, only they called it a typhoon. So we had to go right out to sea and there were 160 mile an hour winds. It blew almost all the port holes out. So back we went to Okinawa to get them repaired [laughs]. 

The Hospital Ship Comfort from there (the war was over), I watched His Honor Macarthur sign the treaty. I think the man was meshugenah. 

Frankel: You actually saw him?
WOLFE: Oh, sure! We were in the harbor when it was signed. I’ll tell you something rather cute. While we were there we went through the Imperial Gardens, which were beautiful. They have these little bridges that go over. There was a mother – now remember, in those days, the man walked in front and the woman walked in back with the children. Now here was this little girl. We were behind the family. The little girl pulls at her mother and Mother holds her up over the bridge and shakes her [head] like this [laughed]. Both of us laughed ourselves sick. Also I went to the University of Tokyo. First of all, we didn’t need to drop the bombs, at all. The fire desecration was enormous. My son has the pictures I took of the destruction. You name the city, there was very little left of it. Now they drop the bomb and then we got burns. In those days, there was no particular burn treatment. Those poor people. I can’t tell you the number that came from Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Frankel: Were you back in the states when the bombs were dropped?
WOLFE: No, I was still in Japan. But we were not near there. These bombs were dropped after we were at Yokahama.

Frankel: So you were at sea?
WOLFE: Yes. And when the war was over and they declared the armistice, then we pulled into Yokahama harbor. I was there for, it must have been a month or a month and a half, helping to treat the Japanese that were burned.

Frankel: So you actually saw the people that came from Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
WOLFE: Oh, sure. They were all lined up for medical treatment. The only thing I could think of was that we used to take sheets, put Vaseline on them, put them in an autoclave to sterilize them, then wrap a burned person in them. The burns were so bad that the circulation of air on them just kills them. Once they got wrapped up in these Vaseline sheets, they could heal. Then after that, we went to Korea and I have never been so cold in my life. The wind came down and oh! When we were in Korea we took back from there 50 Dutch from the Netherlands. They were all prisoners of war. I swear to you that there wasn’t one fat person among them.

Frankel: With whom had the Dutch been fighting?
WOLFE: They had had jobs in Japan, in Tokyo and Yokohama and Nagasaki and so on. Remember that North Korea was then not separated and it was Japanese.

Frankel: So the Dutch people were civilians?
WOLFE: Sure they were civilians. And they had been working there. They had been working in all sorts of occupations.

Frankel: By whom were they taken prisoner?
WOLFE: By the Japanese.

Frankel: I see.
WOLFE: They found out that the Japanese had made many mistakes so the Japanese exported them to Korea. Why they did that, I don’t know.

Frankel: When you took care of the Japanese who had been burned, were you able to communicate with them?
WOLFE: Sometimes. Depending on whether they knew English. They were not taught English as they are now but some knew English. And you can communicate by use of expressions and tell them what you are doing.

Frankel: But how ironic it is that the American dropped the bomb and then it was the Americans also who tried to help the victims.
WOLFE: Oh sure, why not? If you are a human…. They were human, too.

Frankel: But I’m thinking also of them. They perceive you as the enemy and yet you are helping…
WOLFE: Well…

Frankel: So how long were you in the service?
WOLFE: Almost five years. Four years and three quarters.

Frankel: Wow.
WOLFE: Then I came home and my father had been ill. We had considerable… My grandfather had… How long have you been here?

Frankel: Since 1977.
WOLFE: You remember Henry Keeley’s up on ….? We owned that and the garage behind it. That was easily lost. My father was never a very virile man. It so happened that he had terrible prostate problems. He had heart problems too. We sold that and the joke of the thing is that both my brother and I were in the Army at one time and my folks sold the beach house to Claudette Colbert, the actress. Her husband was the captain in charge of the Astoria Naval Base. My folks sold the beach house and I believe sold it for about 20 to 30 thousand. The beach house was then purchased by a very wealthy man who paid, I’m trying to think of the amount, but it was about a hundred times what my folks got for it.

Frankel: Is it still standing?
WOLFE: Oh, yes, it is a beautiful place. Last time we were there it was still beautiful. It is no more a “beach home” than the castle on the hill.

Frankel: Where did your brother serve?
WOLFE: He took army training. He went to Northwestern College. It was a night school for lawyers here in Portland. He went there after the University of Oregon. He served back east.

Frankel: So he never went overseas?
WOLFE: No, he never went overseas.

Frankel: He finished his law degree before he served in the Army?
WOLFE: Yes, but he never passed the bar.

Frankel: He never practiced law?
WOLFE: No, he sold insurance.

Frankel: Did he get married before you did?
WOLFE: No, I think we were married first. But his was only a year later.

Frankel: So when you came back, did you still intend to go to medical school?
WOLFE: I had acceptance at five medical schools but I couldn’t do it. My father would be in and out of the hospital for months at a time. My brother had not practiced and was selling insurance. I couldn’t go to school. Eventually I did, of course. I have a PhD now.

Frankel: In what area?
WOLFE: Well, it is in medicine – in immunology. I was with the allergy clinic for 50 years. Frank Pullman and I devised the venom treatment that is used all over the world now. When the figures first came out there were as many as 4-5,000 people who died of venom from insect bites of mosquitoes, yellow jackets, or hornets. It is rather a cute story. When I first started there, Robert L. Vincent owned the allergy clinic.

Frankel: Was it a private clinic?
WOLFE: Yes. It was in the medical/dental building. We had the whole fourth floor of the building. He got interested in venom. When they get stung they go into static, asthmatic, or if they don’t have adrenaline or something, goodbye. So we started adrenaline for any person who had anaphylaxis from a sting. But how we could get it. When I first started I would remove the venom glands from an insect. That took about 20 or 30 minutes per insect. Well you couldn’t get anything else done. Then Frank said we need a better method. I ordered a very sensitive instrument from New York. It came in bubble-wrap. This was a very long time ago. We had not seen bubble-wrap. We both looked at it and I said, Frank, there is the answer to a maiden’s prayer. What you do is put the bubble-wrap up in a big sheet. You put food behind it and the insects come in and sting the bubble. There is a capillary behind the sheet collecting the venom. Now, that is the way it is done professionally. Anyway, we thought of it and it worked. We got enough venom then to help treat people. The people who we started with were the convicts in Salem. They were our subjects and they got paid for all the tests I did on them.

Frankel: Do they still do that today?
WOLFE: No. They have been, as usual, there are always a few who are not careful and do poor medicine. We never had a bit of trouble. Oh, a woman bit me – a female prisoner – as I was doing a test on her she just reached out and “RRRM.” Fortunately, she didn’t have rabies. [laughs]  But, of course, in the last years that I was working we used a very complicated placebo method. The patient doesn’t know whether they are getting the medicine or not.

Frankel: So when you came back, you did not go on to school. And Fran was waiting for you.
WOLFE: Yes, she certainly was.

Frankel: And what did you do?
WOLFE: I ran the clinic. Fran was a patient. Fran is an asthmatic. Frank Pullman and I started and Robert L. Benson moved next door to me on 30th Street. First we bought a house on 102nd. That was Maywood Park and it was a beautiful thing. I had an acre of ground from 102nd all the way down to the railroad tracks. One night I came home and Fran said, “You know, there have been a lot of men around surveying our property. I waited one day and they came up and told me they were putting a freeway in down by the railroad track. I said, “You didn’t ask my permission to come onto [my property]. He said, “No, we checked with the city and the state and got permission to survey.” Well, I couldn’t tell my boys to go play in the freeway so we moved from 102nd to 30th, which was much easier for taking night calls and so on.

Frankel: Let me go back a little bit with growing up in your family. Was anyone involved in the Zionist movement?
WOLFE: Oh, Fran’s uncle was. I don’t know how much money he gave. While I was in the service, my father brought one Wolf, I think it was Marcus to this country.

Frankel: From where?
WOLFE: From Poland. From “the Pale.”

Frankel: Do you recall when the State of Israel became independent?
WOLFE: Oh, yes.

Frankel: Any vivid memory from that day?
WOLFE: No. I was overjoyed that they did. I foresee problems that were coming up. The English, if you know your history, the sun never set on England [i.e., the English Empire] before World War II. After World War II was another story. I was overjoyed but I was also worried about what would happen. And it did happen, the fighting. It has been very interesting historically.

Frankel: You mentioned your boys living in your first house. What kind of Jewish education did your boys receive, and what are their names?
WOLFE: My older son is Stephen and the other boy is Kenneth. That is his official name. He goes by Ken. Stephen went to Portland State and from there he got his degree and went back to York University in Canada. Then he applied for a Rhodes and got it.

Frankel: In what field?
WOLFE: Well, you don’t get a degree in English from Oxford. You get a degree in Philosophy. So he got his degree and wrote a book about like this. It was on Morse, who invented a way of using cloth and linen. I don’t know it all. Anyway, he was a philosopher. And Fran’s oldest brother was head of the philosophy department at Harvard for years.

Frankel: So what kind of Jewish education did they receive growing up?
WOLFE: They just went to Beth Israel. None of them knew any Hebrew. They knew a little Yiddish.

Frankel: From where?
WOLFE: From Grandma Wolfe. 

Frankel: Your mother spoke Yiddish?
WOLFE: No. My father knew a little bit, but no.

Frankel: And did they have bar mitzvahs?
WOLFE: No, they were all Confirmations.

Frankel: Was your home, when you were married with children, more Jewish than the home you grew up in?
WOLFE: Yes.

Frankel: How so?
WOLFE: Fran. That is the answer. She would have Friday night service. Oh and my son Ken, I played basketball and was a ranked tennis player at one time but Ken was a very good athlete. He still is. They were supposed to play for the city crown on Yom Kippur.

Frankel: In what sport?
WOLFE: Football. And I refused and he said, “No, I won’t” to the coach. And the coach said, “Then you are off the squad.” Well Ken came home and I asked him what had happened. He said, “The coach says I’m off the squad.” I said, “I’ll take care of it.” I went over there and I got the principal and we sat the coach down. He was then sent out of Portland. Where he went I don’t know. But Ken was an excellent football player. He was also a shot-putter. I have a lot of pictures of him. He was a very good athlete. So is my grandson Vincent, his son.

Frankel: And your other son?
WOLFE: He went on to teach at Lewis and Clark. He taught there for a few months and the fellow who he was taking the place of had a mild tachycardia, a mild heart attack, and he wanted to come back. So my son said, “Well I can’t take his job now.” So he moved to Linfield.

Frankel: Was that in the philosophy department? 
WOLFE: No, in the English department. But Stephen is an unusual guy. He has got to be challenged. So he is living in Norway. I don’t know if Fran told you this already. If this is repetitious I am sorry.

Frankel: And he teaches English there?
WOLFE: Yes.

Frankel: And what does Kenneth do?
WOLFE: Kenneth builds shopping centers. He is a commercial realtor. I have five grandchildren. Stephen’s son Tom lives here and then I have two great grandsons. But by the time this year is over and into February, my youngest granddaughter in California is going to have twins. My other grandson, who is a high school teacher (and so are all of my children). My youngest, who is a dental assistant and is going to have twins, is expanding like you wouldn’t believe. Vincent’s wife, now this is rather interesting. She is a veterinarian – and she married into a pack of “Wolves.” [laughs] I said that is very apropos.

[Interview is interrupted]
Frankel: Were there any leaders in the community when you were growing up?
WOLFE: Well I have to tell you a humorous incident. We had an 85th or 86th birthday for Anselm Boskowitz.

Frankel: Who was?
WOLFE: Fran’s uncle. It was a gorgeous day. It was very warm. We set the tables out – this was at 102nd where I had fruit trees and berries and everything. We had everyone out there. Fran served them a lovely dinner. Dessert was berries, which I had from my yard. Everyone was commenting [that] these berries are delicious. And they asked my son, “Why are these berries so good?” He said, “You take the …” Next to us was Mr. Youngberg, who had horses and we used the manure for fertilizer. And everybody had the berries about this high and they put them right down. [laughter]

Frankel: Any leaders of Jewish institutions?
WOLFE: Well, Rabbi Berkowitz. And then [Rabbi] Rose and I worked together. I taught at Temple Beth Israel for 50 years. Bob Mendelssohn and I started an excellent high school program. First I taught eighth grade. Then Bob and I decided that the testosterone begins to flow at 13 and 14 and we taught anatomy and we taught comparative religions. I took the kids to each type, from the Quakers to the Catholics to the Presbyterians and the kids got a liberal education. That was the high school department. We had 40 and 50. I see the high school graduating class now at Temple Beth Israel is four and five. So there is a little difference. We had a good time with the kids.

Frankel: And how has the community changed?
WOLFE: When I was Youth Director at Temple, I would schedule events. We would have dances. We even had a retreat at the beach. I suggested that when the young people had their dances, I said you may invite who you want to invite.

[Fran interrupts with something to drink?]

Frankel: So we talked about how things had changed.
WOLFE: Yes, I don’t think there are any events at Temple now where any Christian would be really interested in. It is a different time. I have never found any problems with good friends that are not Jewish. But we had affairs from high school where they could bring their friends in and they enjoyed it.

Frankel: Is that no longer the case?
WOLFE: I couldn’t tell you. After all, I have great grandchildren now and I don’t know what particularly is going on at Temple. I don’t think they have had any affairs where they allow it, but I think it is a part of friendship. I don’t know what goes on in the younger group now.

Frankel: Anything you would like to add?
WOLFE: Not particularly. I have seen a lot of changes in Portland in 89 years. I think we should all do more to help the community we live in.

[END OF SIDE 2]

Frankel: So you mentioned your volunteer work. You started since you retired from the clinic.
WOLFE: Yes. I had had enough of medicine so I decided to go and try to help the community. I got to know the sheriff, who was Dan _______ and I said, “Maybe I could help screen prisoners for work release.” I did it for as long as Dan was the sheriff. Then this guy, Gusto, or whatever his name is, comes in. And this guy is not very bright. Dan knew police work from beginning to end. His wife is the chief of police now, you know, Rosie. And she is a bright woman.

So I did that and then I switched. I had a group for alcoholism. And I did that. When I got through with one group I moved to the other group. It was about an eight-hour day. I heard all those tsurres galore from them.

Frankel: Were you involved in any Jewish institutions?
WOLFE: I was an usher at Temple. I was the high school principal. Yes, I have served quite well, I think. If you know the day that Bob Mendelssohn and I retired, we were on the main door of the synagogue that had to be repaired and they said, “How dare you? We’ve got to fix the roof because of you guys.” But anyway, I enjoyed that work, but when this new sheriff came and Dan left, I met with him twice. Once I couldn’t believe it and the second time I said, “This is it. I don’t want any part of this.” This year I think they will eliminate all work release things. We have got two jails sitting there with no money to run them.

Frankel: Well. I want to thank you very much.
WOLFE: Oh, sure.