Eugene "Gene" Paul Wolf

Eugene “Gene” Paul Wolf, 84, of Mission Viejo passed away Thursday, February 20, 2020 at his home with family by his side. Gene was born on January 3, 1936 in New York City. He grew up in Bergenfield NJ where he was raised by Michael and Frances Teresa. He joined the United States Air Force immediately after high school where he served from 1954 to 1958. He spent time as an air traffic controller in the tower and toured in Okinawa Japan in support of the Korean war.

Gene returned from the USAF in 1958 where he married his high school sweetheart Dorothy “Dotty” Knowles. She was the love of his life for 62 years of blissful marriage. Gene attended Fairleigh Dickinson University as they started a family, graduated with a physics degree and joined Nuclear Data selling technical computer hardware components. He then rapidly rose in the ranks from salesmen to National Sales Manager during nearly 20 years at Texas Instruments. His entrepreneurial spirit served him well as he founded and sold several companies, EKG Hospital Leads of Downers Grove, IL, Action Computer Service of Lombard IL and Artificial Intelligence Technologies of Pittsburg. Gene and Dotty then moved to Mission Viejo, CA in 1987 for another start up, but joined Sun Microsystems instead. This worked out well as Gene earned international travel trips which he and Dotty enjoyed immensely. He wrapped up his successful career retiring from a computer reseller in 2003.

Gene’s first priorities were always Jesus and family. He also enjoyed piloting small planes, tennis, golf, and traveling. Gene and Dotty were extremely active at St Kilian church where he was an active member of the Knights of Columbus. His passion as a pilot and leader led to his second career where he became a Lieutenant Colonel of the Civil Air Patrol, Squadron 40, from 1992 to 2018, or 26 years. He led many command posts at various roles with Civil Air Patrol. With boundless energy, he played a lot of tennis at the Mission Viejo Tennis and Racquet Club. Gene was also a pretty good golfer scoring a 98 on his last round of golf, on January 23, 2020 at Tijeras Creek Golf Club.

The family loved Gene because of his extreme love and support of our family; no matter what. All others loved him because he injected high energy leadership and purpose in many volunteer organizations and activities.

Survived by his wife, four children and 12 grandchildren. Dotty, his wife, son Eugene Paul Wolf Jr, daughters Deborah Mary LoVetere, Linda Frances Ball, and Teresa Ann Wolf. Grandchildren from Debbie and Larry LoVetere of Woodridge, IL are Nicholas and Joseph; Linda and Scott Ball of Brainerd, MN, (formerly Valley Center, CA) raised Scott, Stephanie, and Elijah; Gene and Katy Wolf of Fishers, IN raised Stephen, Ryan, Meghan, and Sean; Teresa Wolf raised Jessica, Austin, and Joshua. Two more welcomed to the family as Stephanie married Kyle Russell in 2014 and Jessica married Steve Rimes in 2019. Of course, Gene attended the weddings, not to mention that he and Dotty traveled to attend every single grandchild high school graduation, and most of the college graduations.

Gene touched so many lives in a positive manner, he will be missed. However, the good work Gene did will never die, it lives on forever in other people, in other places, and other times. While in heaven with God now, he achieved immortality here on earth and will be remembered forever.