Photo Courtesy of Elaine Wolf
In the 100 years that Elaine Wolf has lived, she’s gained valuable knowledge and experience.
“If only I was smarter, thinner and more accomplished [when I was younger], I would have finally felt worthy,” shares Wolf, a resident of the Gleneagles Country Club in Delray Beach.
Wolf’s husband, Garry, was an entrepreneur who started his first business, Metalart Corporation, in Long Island, New York, where the couple originally lived. Her focus, however, was on raising their four children, and by her own admission, she “didn’t develop anything.”
“Then we moved to Puerto Rico in 1959, where Garry built and operated the first (Brunswick) bowling alley and launderette,” she says. “In those days, every company that opened there was tax exempt, so it was a great place to start a company. After that, he started buying warehouses and running his own commercial and warehousing management business, Borinquen Realty Corporation,” Wolf says.
It wasn’t until Garry passed away in 1971 that she “stepped into” her meaningful role as president of their Puerto Rico company. “I started running his business, and I had to learn all of the things that you have to learn overnight.”
Fortunately, her husband kept “very good files in the office” and Wolf was able to competently review them with tenants. She also gained self-assuredness and a feeling of accomplishment in the process.
“When my children grew up and my husband died, I became a more confident, better person. I’m still the president of the company, but now my son Sidney runs the business.”
Although Wolf relocated to Delray Beach in 1986, she remembers her time in Puerto Rico fondly, calling the last 42 years “my best life.” After losing Garry, she met George Adler, a Californian who was in Puerto Rico on business. They traveled back and forth to see each other and visited 137 countries through the years. Adler passed away in 2017.
“The social life in Puerto Rico was wonderful, and I still have a home there, as well as in the Berkshires, here at Gleneagles and in New York,” Wolf says.
These days, she spends her time doting on her five grandchildren and eight (soon to be nine) great-grandchildren, playing canasta, creating needlepoints, donating to worthy causes like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the American Heart Association and enjoying a life well lived.