Jacqueline Ann Wolff

Obituary for Jacqueline Ann Wolff

Jacqueline Ann Wolff, known to everyone as Jackie, died aged 78 on Friday, April 22, 2017. She had suffered from heart disease and dementia, among other things, and passed away, as she had wished, at her home of 45 years in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Jackie was born in San Diego, California on October 17, 1938 to Dorothy and Edwin Pachaud. After her father went down with his ship in World War II, her mother married a Navy commander Albert Olson, who was a loving father to her and her younger sister Suzanne.

Growing up in a Navy family, Jackie lived in Hawaii and Maryland as well as California. She attended Trinity College in Washington, D.C., a Roman Catholic liberal arts college for women, and worked at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She met her future husband, William Arthur Wolff (known as Bill), a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, on a blind date set up by her cousin Tom Jacobs. They married on November 29, 1958.

As a military wife, Jackie accompanied and actively supported her husband Bill throughout his career as an Air Force officer, beginning with their transfer to Waco, Texas, where their daughter Monique and son William were born in 1959 and 1962, respectively.  After that, a short sojourn in Montgomery, Alabama was followed by stations in California, France, Germany and New York. When Bill was called to serve in Thailand during the Vietnam War, Jackie and the children waited anxiously for his return in San Diego, where they enjoyed being near her parents. Subsequently, the family moved up to Rancho Palos Verdes, which eventually became their permanent home when Bill retired from the Air Force and joined TRW as subcontracting manager.

Jackie was very active and successful in numerous organizations over the years, including the Officers’ Wives’ Club, the Parent-Teacher Association, the American Field Service, the various Catholic churches she and Bill attended over the years, and Las Madrecitas, a charitable organization that supports Orthopedic Hospital in Los Angeles, where her son William underwent surgery for scoliosis.
 

Jackie was known for her outspokenness and tenacity in tackling tough issues, frequently in the face of stiff opposition. Her talent for organizing events, her taste in decorating and fashion and her excellent cooking were greatly appreciated by everyone who knew her. She had a particular knack for making the frequent moves look easy, quickly transforming each new abode into “home”. To the children, she presented each move as a new and exciting adventure to be eagerly welcomed, ensuring that they developed a love of travel and foreign cultures and learned to adapt easily to new situations at an early age. In later years she supported her husband through major back surgery and knee replacements.

Jackie is survived by her husband William A. Wolff, her daughter Monique Simmer, who lives in Germany, and her son William A. Wolff II and his wife Mary of Huntington Beach and their three children, as well as her sister Suzanne Wingfield of Spring Valley, California.

A funeral mass will be celebrated on Monday, June 5th at 10:00 a.m. at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church, 16400 Springdale Street, Huntington Beach, California 92649. A rosary for Jackie will be said immediately prior to Mass.  Jackie’s final resting place will be at the Riverside National Cemetery. 

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