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Pursuing The Truth
DAVID SACHS
Editorial Assistant
le
leanor Wolf, a sociology
professor at Wayne State
University, was described by
a colleague as having "the
most powerful intellect" he had ever
encountered" with an analytical
prowess like "a giant beacon of light."
"I knew nuclear physicists; I knew a
lot of genius-type people," said Prof.
Charles Lebeaux, a retired social work
professor at WSU, but Dr. Wolf "was
superior to anyone else I ever knew."
Eleanor Paperno Wolf, 82, died July
27 of a heart attack while cutting flow-
ers on the grounds of her home.
Thomas Wolf, a U.S. Agency for
International Development worker in
Kenya, said his mother, Dr. Wolf, "had
a comradeship for people who were
pursuing the truth. Not simply an
abstract or intellectual truth, but a
truth that was related to the welfare of
people, to actually help human lives."
But sometimes Dr. Wolf's quest.for
the truth alienated her from friends
and colleagues. Although a liberal and
an integrationist, she warned against
the misuse of sociological studies pre-
sented as evidence by those arguing in
court for the cross-district busing of
school children in Detroit.
In her retire-
ment years, she
remained active as
ever, but shifted
her focus, said her
son, to local "dirty
fingernail" envi-
ronmental issues
near her Orion
Township home,
north of Pontiac,
which won her
the nickname
Eleanor Wolf
Queen of
Clarkston Road.
Dr. Wolf, named "Eleanor" after
Karl Marx's daughter, spent three
teenage years in the early 1930s in the
Soviet Union with her father, who was
helping to establish industrial plants in
Gorky. They witnessed firsthand the
travesties of Stalin — the mass starva-
tion caused by forced agricultural col-
lectivization and the frequent purges of
imagined enemies. Dr. Wolf returned
to the U.S. so disillusioned by these
scenes of horror that she remained
inoculated against doctrinaire social-
ism. "She was always a liberal
Democrat," said Thomas:.\X iolf.
Back in the U.S., she became active
in the Jewish Labor Committee and
the Democratic Party. Along with her
late husband, Leo Wolf, she helped
CC
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`The Charming One'
DAVID SACHS
Editorial Assistant
To fans of the issues-oriented televi-
sion show hosted by her late husband,
Lou Gordon, Jacqueline Gordon was
known as "Jackie." Mrs. Gordon, 66,
died from heart disease Tuesday in her
Bloomfield Hills home.
For 12 years, Lou and Jackie Gordon
appeared together on the WKBD-TV
(Channel 50) program, holding local
and national politicians' feet to the fire
every Saturday and Sunday night.
"Lou was the hard-charging one and
Jackie was the charming one," said her
stepdaughter, Deborah Gordon. "She
was more live-ande-let-live."
"She was mellow," said her son, Jon
Gordon.
The television show began in 1965
and continued until Mr. Gordon's death
in 1977. Mrs. Gordon's role in it came
8/6
1999
158 Detroit Jewish News
about quite by
accident.
"Lou had
another woman
on the show who
would ask him
questions,"
recalled Deborah
Gordon. "She got
sick and Lou
turned to Jackie at
the dinner table
and asked her to
fill in.
Jackie Gordon
"At first she
wanted no part of it, but was convinced
to do it for just one night. The rest is
history. She didn't miss a night. She
thoroughly enjoyed it."
At one time during her husband's
heart surgery, Mrs. Gordon hosted the
show by herself. She remained a key
player on the show as the co-host until
form the Detroit chapter
of the Americans for
Democratic Action.
Her husband's sister,
May was married to
United Automobile
Workers president
Walter Reuther. After
two assassination
attempts on the union
leader, the Reuthers
moved from Detroit to
a more secluded home
on the Paint Creek near
Rochester. It was May
Reuther who suggested
the -Wolfs buy property
near them in Orion
Township, land that later became
their retirement home.
Dr. Wolf sought to understand and
prevent "white flight" from the city of
Detroit. In the early 1950s, she did a
study of the changing neighborhood of
Russell Woods, near Dexter and
Davison. She earned a doctorate in
sociology at Wayne State in 1957 and
joined the faculty.
Later, her interests turned to the use
of sociological evidence in school bus-
ing cases. Her controversial book Trial
and Error: The Detroit School
Desegregation Case (Wayne State
University Press, 1981) won the North
Central Sociological Association's
Distinguished Achievement award. In
the book, Dr. Wolf argued that the
her husband's death.
Born in Minnesota, Mrs.
Gordon grew up in Detroit
and graduated from Cooley
High School.
"She was a wonderful
dancer," said Deborah
Gordon.
Mrs. Gordon pursued a
career in modeling, work-
ing at the Detroit and New
York auto shows and as a
runway model. She was
working as a model at
Hudson's downtown store
when she caught the eye of
Lou, who was having lunch
there. She married him in
November 1962.
"Lou's death was a loss she lived with
every day," said Deborah Gordon. "She
struggled, but she continued on."
After her husband's death, Mrs.
Gordon did promotional work for Great
Scott! Supermarkets- and Jacobson's
stores. She maintained her relationship
adversarial court process facilitated the
misuse and manipulation of sociologi-
cal studies. She also felt that cross-dis-
trict busing was a divisive and ineffec-
tive policy Many friends and col-
leagues, who supported busing, broke
off with her over this issue. The U.S.
Supreme Court eventually ruled out
cross-district busing for Detroit.
After retiring from WSU in 1983,
Dr. Wolf taught at Oakland
University. On the Wolfs' five-acre
property in Orion Township, she and
her husband planted every flowering
tree and shrub that would grow in
Michigan. Dr. Wolf became a devot-
ed environmentalist, assisting efforts
to control rampant commercial
development. She helped the town-
ship to draft a wetlands ordinance.
"She fought off major developers,"
said Dr. Lebeaux. "She was very
brave. She could stand up and speak
her peace.
A memorial service is scheduled
for Aug. 23 at Congregation Shir
Tikvah in Troy.
Dr. Wolf is survived by her sons
and daughter-in-law, Peter and
Christina Wolf of Rochester and
Thomas Wolf of Nairobi, Kenya; and
grandchildren, Andrea and
Alexander. She was the beloved wife
of the late Leo Wolf. Contributions
may be made to a charity of one's
choice. Arrangements by Ira
Kaufman Chapel. E
"
with Channel 50 until her death, show-.
ing groups around the station. "People
got a kick out of taking the tour with
Jackie," said her stepdaughter.
Mrs. Gordon remained active in the
Detroit community, involved with many
charitable causes, among them, the
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Project
HOPE and Michigan ArtTrain.
A funeral service is scheduled for 1
p.m. Aug. 6 at Ira Kaufman Chapel.
Mrs. Gordon is survived by her sons
and daughter-in-law, Jon and Peggy
Gordon and Abraham Scott Gordon;
stepdaughters and stepsons-in-law
Deborah Gordon and Marc Thomas,
Carol and Andy Braitman, Ruth
Gordon Howard and Brian Howard;
and seven grandchildren.
Contributions may be made to the
Cardiac Unit of William Beaumont -
Hospital, 3601 13 Mile Road, Royal
Oak, MI 48073 or the American
Cancer Society, 29350 Southfield Road,
Suite 110, Southfield, MI 48076. I 1