Gary Wolfe

Gary Herman Wolfe was born December 30, 1935, in Hudson, Ohio, to Nina and Herman Wolfe and big brother Dick. He died on January 29, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio, having been married to the love of his life, Rebecca for 47 years. Together they built up and cherished a beautiful family of three daughters, Kim, Karla and Jodi who in turn brought them Walt, Jeff, Talal and Wes (Stephanie and Wesley’s dad). The families grew to include grandchildren Justin (Mona) and Kassandra (Corey), Stephanie (Scott) and Wesley (Leanne), Ashton and Lleyton, Amanda, Alyssa and Katie. Then the blessings of a long life brought great-grandchildren Eiden and Roen, Olivia and Carson, Sunni and Landon.

The achievement of bonding together this wonderful family would be enough, but Gary lived such a full, well-rounded, and fun life that there is much worth mentioning. He was a proud graduate of Hudson High School and went on to attend Purdue University. Not finding his niche in college, he returned home after two years and became a technical writer and illustrator for Erieside Associates in Cleveland. Though the U.S. was between wars in Korea and Vietnam, Gary signed up to do service in the U.S. Army. There he became trained as a radio operator. After basic training, he joined the Ohio National Guard where he served six years.

Because his military duty was basically “on call,” he became a member of the Hudson Police Force and a Volunteer Firefighter, both duties he loved. He joined the Masonic Lodge following in the footsteps of his father and brother and recently received his 65 year pin. He also was hired by Morse Instruments of Hudson to run their computer department. From there he went to Marks Tractor also in Hudson, that was later bought out by Dravo Corporation of Pittsburgh, where Gary became branch manager of five locations in the state of Ohio for distributorships of heavy earth moving equipment.

Gary and Rebecca met as a blind “set-up” in October of 1975. They were both smitten that first night and soon after began planning an April wedding. Marrying Rebecca meant he joined the Arnold clan and became the son Shirley and Jr. never had, a beloved brother to Pam and Sibyl, and uncle to Christa, Trina and Kellie.

Members of High Street Christian Church in Akron, Gary served as lead Usher, Chair of Deacons, Chair of Trustees and Chair of the Board. As Rebecca was serving the church as Minister of Christian Education at the time, he was always at the ready to help. Gary was ALWAYS there as a helpmate in life to Rebecca whenever and wherever.

Dravo eventually divested themselves of the earth moving equipment division so Gary was left floundering for about a month when he was called to be the Chief Administer of Child Support for Summit County, Ohio. He served in that position for several years before going to work for AMS Consulting as a consultant on a project for locating absentee parents across state lines all over the country.

When Gary finally decided to “retire” from professional life, he quickly found other work at Green Local Schools as groundskeeper where he happily mowed lawn, weed-whacked and generally made the schools look great! After several years when the bags of lime for lining the football fields became more than he wanted to heft, he took a job at Lexus of Akron-Canton. As with all of Gary’s jobs, he loved meeting people and this job was right up his alley. He delivered cars to those needing a loaner while their car was being serviced and he chatted his way to places as far away as Kentucky and West Virginia.

In 2011, Rebecca and Gary moved to Dublin, Ohio, to watch their youngest grandsons grow up as they had the other four grandchildren in northeast Ohio. Not one to sit around, Gary quickly found Infiniti of Columbus and began driving cars to customers once more. He also volunteered Saturdays with Rebecca at the Tri-Village Trading Post, First Community’s mission thrift store and renovated the entire space when he was 80+ years of age.

When the pandemic kept most at home, Gary launched into a legacy project for his family. He digitized more than 14,000 pictures, old movies and slides to gift each of the children and grandchildren their own “Down Memory Lane.”

His life began and ended with faith, family and friends, full of good moments and memories. May we all be able to say that at our journey’s end on earth.

A memorial gathering will be held on Thursday February 8, 2024, at Schoedinger Dublin, 5980 Perimeter Drive, Dublin, Ohio 43017 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. A funeral service will be held on Friday February 9, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at First Community Church North Campus; 3777 Dublin Road, Columbus, Ohio 43221.

Because of Gary’s early service in the Fire Department, Police Department, and Army he always valued those who sacrificed for others. One of his favorite charities was Tunnel2Towers so in lieu of flowers, if you would like, the family would ask that you remember him to this organization. [email protected] or call 718-987-1931.