ELGIN DOCTOR WHO DELIVERED OVER 2,500 BABIES, DIES

WOLF, STOCKSTILL

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 4/5/2007 at 21:38:41

ELGIN DOCTOR WHO DELIVERED OVER 2,500 BABIES, DIES

By Jack Swanson, Union Ass't News Editor

Dr. Henry Wolf, who practiced medicine in the Elgin area for 63 and one half years, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer.

Wolf delivered over 2,500 babies in his long career and developed even more relationships with his many patients through the years.

"Every one of his patients had a personal piece of him," said longtime companion Barbara Stockstill.

Dr. Wolf is remembered throughout the Elgin Community for his humility and his generosity.

In the 1930's when Wolf began practice in Elgin, he accepted chickens, eggs and cords of wood in exchange for his services. "If it was a truly charity situation, he forgot the money altogether," Stockstill said.

Wolf and his wife, Rose, came from Chicago to Elgin in January of 1932, to begin his practice of medicine and surgery. He retired on June 1, 1995, due to ill health.

The couple raised two sons and a daughter. The sons followed their father into the medical field. Rose died in 1965.

"I think he'd like to be thought of as putting others first and himself second," Stockstill, a nurse for 55 years said. Stockstill said in her 55 years of nursing she had never met another doctor like him.

"He didn't seek notoriety. Everybody loved him and he loved everybody. He told me he didn't do anything special, just what he wanted and liked to do," she said about his career.

Elgin was Wolf's first place of private practice after a residency at Woodlawn Hospital in Chicago, and never left. [Dr. Wolf was on the staff of both the Postville and West Union hospitals.]

"He loved the area. The quiet surroundings. He said he felt like everyday was Sunday because everyone was so friendly all the time," Stockstill commented.

As far as areas of expertise ....Stockstill said, "He was awfully good at delivering babies and suturing up people so it didn't leave a big scar."

Stockstill said Dr. Wolf will probably also be missed not seen lying or kneeling in his yard pulling weeds. "Every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, you would see him lying on the ground pulling weeds. Many people thought he had just dropped over," Stockstill commented.

She also said that Dr. Wolf was very devoted to his 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren and them to him. "I've never seen anyone as devoted to a grandparent as they were," she said.

His memorial service will be 11 a.m., Monday, at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Elgin.

About all the things he is being remembered for and the recognition for his contributions Stockstill said, "He wouldn't have cared about it."

[Dr. Wolf died April 6, 1996 at the Good Samaritan Center in Postville following a long illnesss with cancer. See his obit on the Obituary Board of this site.]

Postville Herald-Leader newspaper clipping from my mother's obituary and newspaper articles collection. Submitter has no further information.