Hazel Wolf

Hazel Wolf (March 10, 1898 – January 19, 2000) was an activist and environmentalist who lived in the Seattle area for most of her life. Born in 1898 to an American mother and a Canadian father, she lived to see three centuries before her death at 101 years of age on January 19, 2000. A member of the communist party, she was active in immigration issues and was at one point nearly deported herself, though she was later granted citizenship. During the later years of her life, she became known as an environmental activist and served as secretary for the Seattle Audubon Society for 35 years.

Biography

Hazel Wolf was born March 10, 1898 in a hotel located in Victoria, British Columbia. She grew up poor and her early years were largely dominated by class and poverty issues. Her father was a sergeant in the Canadian merchant marines and her mother was a native of Indiana. In 1901 her brother, named after her father but generally referred to as "Sonny," was born. In 1903 her sister Dorothy was born. Hazel Wolf was formally trained as a social worker, but felt most at home among her people. This led to her involvement in the Communist party, where she felt she was doing 'real' social work. By the time of McCarthyism, Wolf was being targeted by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service as a subversive foreign national. Her deportation cases lasted from 1949 to 1963. She later became a US citizen, but made no apologies for having been a member of the communist party.

Her later years were largely dominated by her environmental activism, which led her to Washington D.C. to lobby congress on issues that were important to her. She became nationally recognized and was awarded the National Audubon Society's Medal of Excellence. She traveled and lectured intensively, making connections with and between indigenous people, labor, and environmentalists. She traveled to Nicaragua in the late 1980s and early 1990s, seeing hope in the connection that the Sandinistas made between environmental stewardship and democratic socialism.

Hazel Wolf died on January 19, 2000 at 101 years of age.

Sources

Starbuck, S. (2003). Hazel Wolf: Fighting the Establishment. Seattle. University of Washington Press.