Biography: George Louis Wolff, aka Gerd Ludwig Wolff, of Little Rock, loving husband and father, 84 years old, passed away on Friday, October 12, 2012. George was born in Hamburg, Germany on 08/24/1928 to Eva and Dr. Adolf Wolff. Before emigrating to England with his parents in March 1939, he attended the Talmud Torah School in Hamburg. During this time, he and his family experienced Kristallnacht (11/09/1938 ? 11/10/1938). In England, while waiting for immigration visas to the U.S.A., George attended Ashburton School in East Croydon, a suburb of London, where he learned English with the help of his classmates and teachers. After World War II started on September 1, 1939 George was evacuated to Polegate (Sussex), a village in southern England, together with his school. After finally receiving their immigration visas to the U.S.A., the family sailed across the storm-tossed Atlantic Ocean on the M.S. Brittanic in February 1940. The journey took 7 days without anti-submarine protection in a convoy; every hard wave that hit the ship was assumbed to be a torpedo from a German submarine. After landing in New York, the family settled in Cleveland, OH where his father studied for the Ohio medical board examinations. In 1941 George?s father established a successful internal medical practice in Chillicothe, OH where George graduated from Chillicothe High School in 1947. After earning a B.S. degree cum laude from Ohio State University in 1950, George did graduate work and received a Ph.D. degree in Zoology/Genetics from the University of Chicago in 1954. Subsequently, he and his wife, Eleanor Herstein, whom he married in 1953, moved to Bethesda, MD to perform research in functional genomics under a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute with Dr. Walter E. Heston. As a biologist in the National Cancer Institute assigned to work at the National Research Council during 1956-58, he designed and implemented the first national inspection and accreditation system for commercial laboratory animal breeders supplying mice and rats for the anti-cancer drug screening programs of the Cancer Chemotherapy National Service Center at the National Institutes of Health. A decade later the Animal Welfare Act delegated this responsibility for assuring the health and welfare of all small animals used in biomedical research to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1958 George accepted a genetics research position at the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia where he was also in charge of the laboratory animal breeding and research colony. Here he began the development of a mutant mouse model, the ?viable yellow agouti obese mouse,? for use in biomedical research in obesity, cancer, nutritional genomics and prenatal development. In 1972 George, his wife Eleanor, son David and daughter Adrienne moved to Little Rock where he continued his functional genomics research at the then newly established National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR)/FDA in Jefferson, AR. He collaborated extensively with other investigators at NCTR and elsewhere, received numerous invitations to present his work at international meetings, and published more than 100 scientific articles and book chapters. Among other results of his research, he demonstrated, with co-workers, that the diet fed to mouse dams during pregnancy alters the coat color and associated characteristics of the offspring by affecting epigenetic regulation of gene expression. George held appointments as adjunct professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in the Departments of Biochemistry/Molecular Biology and Pharmacology/Toxicology. He was also a member of the Arkansas Cancer Research Center. Following his official retirement in 1999, George continued working at NCTR part-time as a Guest Worker until 2006. Beginning in 2003 George collaborated with Drs. Thomas Badger, Maritn Roins, and Steven Stanley at the Arkansas Childrens Hospital Research Institute in a nutritional genomics study using the yellow agouti obese mice. George was a member of Congregation B?nai Israel, served twice on its board of trustees, and was its House and Grounds Coordinator from 2001-2006. For many years he was active in the Jewish Federation of Arkansas, serving in all administrative posts, including president. His involvement with the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), as a board member, member of the executive and budge committees, and national trustee stemmed directly from his personal experiences in Germany. George is survived by his wife of 59 years, Eleanor, his son David Wolff, daughter Adrienne Grossbard and her husband Dr Jeremy Grossbard. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the NCCJ, Congregation B?nai Israel (Little Rock), the Jewish National Fund, The Nature Conservancy, or The Heifer Project International. A funeral service will be held Tuesday October 16, 2012 at 10 a.m. in Ruebel Funeral Home followed by a graveside service at Oakland Jewish Cemetery. www.ruebelfuneralhome.com
I am saddened to learn so belatedly of George's passing. I just retired this past year after 40 years in government service and, I must tell you, George was the best mentor and supervisor I ever had in those 40 years. His research with yellow-agouti mice is just recently being fully appreciated. My condolences to you, David and Adreinne. I will try to call if I can locate your phone number.
God Bless you!
Jack Bishop