South Side High School - Optimist Yearbook (Newark, NJ)

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MICHAEL CONOVITZ Principal 4

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There are few people who can look back into the past with such a feeling of fullness of achievement as can Miss Marie Wolfs. Her life has been made rich in a variety of services to others. Those who have associated with her during her years at South Side know full well the warmness of her concern for both faculty and students, and the efficiency of her administration os vice-principal. There are few who know how long is the record of her accomplishments in other fields and in other lands. Caught by the bombing and occupation of Liege. Belgium, in 1914. Miss Wolfs and her sister. Helen, spent three months in the custody of the Germans, until they finally escaped into Holland. It was under these circumstances that her desire to help others received further impetus. She returned to France in 1917 as d rector of the Smith College Relief Unit, where she worked in the villages of the Somme for civilian relief. In the Spring of 1918. she retreated with the 5th British Army evacuating civilians, and feeding refugees. She was later decorated by the French Government for courage and loyalty to the children and aged under bombardment. In 1919, after working in the hospitals of the Argonne region, she returned to the Somme area to establish a dispensary, library and recreation center. In 1923 a new bell was christened in her honor in one of the reconstructed churches of Grecourt, France. In 1924, a replica of the gates of the Chateau of Grecourt was unveiled at Smith College as a gesture of appreciation to Miss Wolfs and the college unit which did so much to “betler understanding between nations of the earth.' At no time has Miss Wolfs relaxed her career of service. She was a member of the central committee of the St. Barnabas Hospital School of Nursing, and a lay member of the N. J. State League of Nursing Education. Her work on the School Committee of the Y.W.C.A. is testimony to her continued interest in the welfare of others. From her high school days in Brooklyn, N. Y.. her college years at Smith and Columbia, to her appointment to East Side High School in 1911, Miss Wolfs has been gathering experience, sincerity and personal charm. Wherever she has gone, fishing in the Outer Hebrides. Europe, crossing the equator to South America, or the Arctic Circle to Spitzbergen. Miss Wolfs has left behind a host of warm friends. It is not at all difficult to understand, now that the record is published, why Miss Wolfs has been loved by all South Siders. She has been to us only what it was natural for her to be. whatever her position or point of geography: a nurse, a director, an advisor, a sympathizer, a friend. Miss Wolfs will never go into retirement: she is only leaving South Side for other adventures, other services. There is so much yet to see. so much yet to do. so many yet to be helped, that we must be grateful for her time with us, and unselfishly share her with a:l others in this wide. w:rie world. ta MiM. MaAie. IVolffL

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Besuxvti,