Eric Duane Wolf
Eric Duane Wolf was born on June 6, 1959, in Stanford, California, to Rev. M. David Wolf and Ruth Marie Wolf (nee Kropff). Eric passed away of dementia on January 13, 2023, only 63 years of age. His battle was long, but he fought with grace and now he is at peace.
Eric was a life-long connoisseur of Dad puns and one-liners. He said he lived his life to make people either groan or laugh at his jokes.
Eric was an outstanding athlete in his high school and college days, including being the champion of the West Coast Decathlon. He placed third nationally in track in Junior Olympics. His first degree was in communications, and he enjoyed teaching and coaching at the high school level; however, living in Silicon Valley, computers caught his interest and imagination. He went back to school and earned his Master's in Computer Engineering and that became his career first in California and later after they moved to North Carolina.
Eric met Teresa Woodard (nee Manning) at a coffee shop in Sunnyvale, CA, on New Year’s Day in 1998. Teresa is from North Carolina and on hearing her accent, Eric asked, “Are you going to order grits with that?” From that moment developed a deep friendship and then love that was gentle, kind, supportive, and all-around wonderful. They married in 1999 and merged two families. Eric’s children, Amy and Tim, were young and Teresa’s boys, Martin and Matthew Woodard, were older. The blending of families went very smoothly, and they both felt blessed to gain “bonus children” through their marriage.
In addition to his wife of 23 years and his children, Eric leaves behind his parents, Rev. M. David “Dave” Wolf and Ruth Marie Wolf (nee Kropff), brother Brian (Janice), brother Gary (Sheila), nephew Thomas, and niece Annie, all of Northern California. Eric also was fortunate to have a big family of aunts, uncles and cousins that will miss him.
Additionally, Teresa’s four sisters and mother considered him a son and brother, not an in-law. They loved his humor and how much he loved Teresa. He will be greatly missed.
Private memorials will be held on both the east and west coasts in the coming weeks. In lieu of flowers, we ask that you make a donation to the nonprofit of your choice in his name. If you need suggestions, three organizations that were special to him through his wife’s work were Curamericas Global, TROSA, or the Bob Barker Company Foundation.
Finally, we ask that the next time you tell a “dad” joke or pun and hear the groan or laugh, think of Eric. He would be so proud.
