Gladys Wolff, a resident of Wingate at Dutchess in Fishkill, passed away on Monday, September 7, 2015 at the age of 96. She was born in Brooklyn on March 16, 1919, the oldest of four daughters born to the late Abraham Gross and Rae Kornhauser Gross.

Always an academic prodigy, she graduated from Hunter College with a Baccalaureate in French in 1938 and from New York University in 1942 with a Master’s Degree in linguistics. She obtained her Ph.D. Degree in French from the Linguistics Department at Columbia University in 1958, one of the first women to do so.
In 1941, she married William Schoenfeld; they were divorced in 1953. In 1955, she married Max Wolff, and they remained married until his death in 1985.

Gladys’ working career was tied to her love of languages. In addition to her native language English, she was fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese; she also knew Yiddish, Hebrew, Latin and Hungarian. Gladys worked as a translator in Portuguese for an import-export company; as a part-time and full-time French teacher in the Bronx where she was awarded a John Jay Fellowship in Bennington, VT; and from 1967 to 1981 as a French teacher at Mamaroneck High School in Mamaroneck. She then became a full professor of linguistics at Long Island University in Brooklyn, followed by an appointment to the faculty of Mercy College at Dobbs Ferry until her retirement in 2003. She was a member of Phi Delta Kappa and the Alliance Francaise in New York City.

Dr. Wolff’s academic career was centered on Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language. In 2000, she was awarded a five year, one million dollar grant from the Federal Education Department for a program engaged in the mentoring of ESL/Bilingual teachers in various districts of the Bronx and Manhattan. She was also the recipient of several grants from New York State for ESL and Bilingual Education.

Gladys is survived by one son, Mark Schoenfeld and his wife Chantal of Hopewell Junction; three grandsons, Daniel Schoenfeld and his wife Deborah of Cockeysville, MD, Robert Schoenfeld and his wife Laura of Tempe, AZ and Gary Schoenfeld and his fiancée Shannon of Holmes; her five great grandchildren, Ryan, Christopher, Michael, Jack and Alexa; and a sister, Judy Bernheim of Lafayette, CA. She was predeceased by her parents, her husbands, and two sisters, Renee Hoffman and Terry Goldstein.

Burial was on Thursday, September 10, 2015 at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale. Arrangements were under the direction of the McHoul Funeral Home, Inc. Please visit www.mchoulfuneralhome.com.