Lord Wolfson (Cr 42-45)
We are very sorry to announce the death of Lord Wolfson of Marylebone (Cr 42-45) on 20 May 2010. He was 82.
Leonard Wolfson and his parents – he was their only child – were founder trustees of the Wolfson Foundation in 1955. Endowed with £6 million worth of GUS shares, its objectives were the advancement of health, education, science, the arts and humanities. The trust multiplied in value more than a hundredfold, and its website now records that funds stand at £750 million, with more than £1 billion (at current values) having been given away.
At the age of 44 Lord Wolfson as Deputy Chairman of the Wolfson Foundation, Managing Director of Great Universal Stores, Chairman of Great Universal Stores Merchandise Corporation, and on the London Board of Barclays Bank.
At King's he had two seasons as a batsman in the school cricket XI and later became a member of the MCC.
In 1970 the Trustees of the Wolfson Foundation made a generous grant to King's towards the cost of The Wolfson Building designed to provide workshop space on the ground floor for science and engineering projects and on the upper floor an arts centre. It was a munificent gift that would commemorate L.G. Wolfson's boyhood in the school and the family's many associations with Worcester. In recent years, the Wolfson Foundation has also given a generous grant towards IT equipment in the new Library.
Leonard Wolfson was president of the Jewish Welfare Board from 1972 to 1982, a trustee of the Imperial War Museum and a patron of the Royal College of Surgeons. He held honorary fellowships and doctorates of a large number of colleges and institutions in Britain and Israel besides the pair which bore his name.
He was knighted in 1977 and was created a life peer, as Lord Wolfson of Marylebone, in 1985. He also inherited his father's baronetcy, created in 1962.
He married first, in 1949, Ruth Sterling, with whom he had four daughters, Janet, Laura, Deborah, Elizabeth. After 41 years of marriage, Ruth suddenly departed – leaving him on a beach in Barbados, reportedly after a row about their lunch plans – to embark on a relationship with the boxing promoter and property tycoon Jarvis Astaire. The marriage was dissolved, and in 1991 Lord Wolfson married secondly, and very happily, Estelle Jackson (née Feldman).
His funeral was held on Sunday, 23rd May 2010.