Robert Orville Wolfe

Source: Gordon Wolfe ... Life Story

Robert was born in Congress, Ohio December 29, 1923 to Harry William Wolfe and Ruby May (Baughman) Wolfe. The name on his birth certificate is Richard, not Robert, but he was called Robert all during his childhood, enlisted in the army as Robert and was married as Robert. He had his name legally changed to Robert when he went to get his birth certificate to obtain a passport and found out he was really Richard. He was sixth of twelve children. When he was about four years old, his family moved to California and settled around the county of San Luis Obispo. He went to the local schools and graduated from San Luis Obispo High School. Robert's father contracted severe diabetes and had to have a leg amputated. This left his father a bitter and angry man who became abusive to his wife and children. After graduation, Robert decided to leave his abusive father and went to Los Angles to study Theology at the college of Aimee Semple McPherson in the hopes of being a missionary. He worked in a bowling alley as a pinsetter, receiving only tips, but no wages. This was barely enough to pay his tuition. The Bowling alley owner allowed him to sleep in the alley and eat leftover food. The constant demands from the college to come up with more money in the form of donations soured Robert on organized religion in general. About that time , the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and he joined the army (March, 1943). His hope was that the army would be a better family than any he had had so far, including the church, and he was at least assured of enough food and a place to sleep, and besides, he knew he would be drafted soon anyway. He was with the 297th Combat Engineers and was stationed in Bournemouth , England ,from where he was sent to land on Omaha Beach on "D" day June 6, 1944. He did not get to the Battle of the Bulge but only to Stolburg Germany. Having earned the Bronze Star for manning a machine gun to cover his unit's retreat and the Soldier’s medal for jumping into a burning explosives truck and stopping it before it plowed into a crowded mess tent, and reaching the rank of Sergeant First Class, he was sent home on leave December 1944. While stationed at Camp Beale California, he met Juanita Patterson at a USO dance in April of 1945 and they were married five months later. Robert worked thirty-four years as a heavy equipment operator for Pacific Gas and Electric Company and was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union. He attended American River College in Carmicheal, California at night, graduating with his A.A. in Business only one semester before his son, Gordon graduated there also. The graduation changed his life. PG&E recognized his potential and made him working foreman, then foreman, then regional safety officer all in a few years. They told him he would have to move to San Francisco to become the Company-wide Safety Officer there. Robert did not want to move to San Francisco and rather than accept the position, he retired at age fifty-nine to golf, fish and tend his beloved vegetable garden. Robert and Juanita have lived for more than fifty years in the same house on Mariposa Avenue in Citrus Heights, California that they built up from a sheep barn on land given to them by Juanita's parents.

Robert died in 2005 from COPD and complications of diabetes, emphysema and heart disease.