William Alvord "Al" Wolff ’40 passed away in his sleep Sept. 6, 2014, at Maravilla in Santa Barbara, Calif., with family at his side. Al, as he was called, was born in San Francisco on Nov. 18, 1917 to William Alvord Wolff, Sr. and Debora Jones Wolff. He was the second oldest of 6 children. All of his siblings pre-deceased him as did his first wife of 49 years, Marcella Jensen Wolff and his second wife of 18 years, Connie Duckworth Wolff.
Al always credited his youthful experience selling newspapers on the street corners of San Francisco from 1927 to 1934 for his later success in the business world. He and his brother called it a good evening when they would bring home $1.00 having sold 100 papers at a profit of 1 cent apiece.
Though he only played football for Mission High School in his senior year, and that only because his coach promised to help him get a college scholarship, he was named to the San Francisco All Star Team and offered scholarships to Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Santa Clara University. Al chose Santa Clara because they would pay not only for tuition, room, and board but books as well. He played well enough to win an All American designation for two years, one of them awarded by consensus. His team went on to win back-to-back Sugar Bowl titles in 1936 and ’37 and he was offered a pro football contract by the Chicago Cardinals, which he declined. As he stated many times, "I played football in college to get an education, not to get my brains scrambled!" After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering, Al continued to show his appreciation and dedication to the University of Santa Clara as coach and a founding member of the Bronco Bench Foundation and a Regent of the university for 10 years.
After college, Al got a job working for US Steel for 5 years and then went to work for FMC of San Jose where he spent the rest of his corporate life. He worked his way up the ladder by never refusing an opportunity and always preparing himself for a new role. Moving with his family to Houston, Texas, he became president of Oil Center Tool and Die, now a part of FMC Technologies. He managed that company so well that he was called back to corporate headquarters. Once there, he moved into the international arena for FMC, setting up some 18 or more plants in various countries throughout the world. He retired in 1982 as Senior VP of the corporation.
With his first wife, Marcella Jensen, Al had three children, Sherry, and twins Diane and Bill. All three survive him as do their children Sara Rushing Powell and Jill Rushing Fonte as well as Christian Anderson and Emily Anderson Allen. He was also the proud great-grandfather of eight: Augusta, Ben and Will Powell-Rushing; Leo and Marco Fonte; Ellamae and Ayla Allen; and Bryce Anderson. Al was pre-deceased by grandson Travis P. "Tip" Rushing. He is also survived by one step-daughter and 2 step-grandchildren from his second marriage.