Ellen June Wulf

Homemaker, scholar, teacher, athlete, coach, singer, and actor! Who could imagine such energy in such a small package? Meet “E. J.”, my friend and first dancing partner at Stone Oak. jfs

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Ellen June was the second child born to Gilbert and Ellen McDonald of Damascus, OH - a village in Mahoning County. Born “at home” on October 1, 1925, she joined her only sibling, Robert, who was born 4 years earlier. Her parents owned and operated an auto dealership selling Nash cars, Reo trucks and Massey Ferguson Farm Equipment.

E. J. began singing at an early age. By the time she was eight years old, she enjoyed singing in public, and was paid to sing at events sponsored by local organizations. Singing in private and public has been a life-long passion.

E. J. attended Damascus Elementary and High Schools. In addition to singing, she enjoyed school- and 4-H Club activities. Her favorite 4-H project was sewing. Among her fond memories is Dan Patch, a Tennessee Walking Horse/Shetland Pony crossbred belonging to a neighbor. As a 10-year-old, E. J. showed the horse at the Salem Polo Grounds and won second place in the 4-gaited horse competition.

E. J. had a very busy and rewarding life during the High School years. She took college-preparatory courses including two years each of Latin and French. She was the band’s drum major and a cheer leader. This dual role required that she leave the cheer leading squad after the first quarter of the game, change uniforms, and emerge with the band as drum major for the half-time show! She also enjoyed participating in the school plays. In her junior year, she had the lead role in “Anne of Green Gables”.

After graduating from high school in 1943, E. J. enrolled in Mount Union College in Alliance, OH. This private college, affiliated with the Methodist Church, required that all students attend a chapel service each Friday morning. E. J. joined Delta Delta Delta Sorority and sang in its choir. She and a girlfriend wrote and performed skits advertising local businesses.

During her first year at Mount Union, she met Harold Wulf, an Airman assigned to the 26th College Training Detachment, at a “Coke” (Coca Cola!) party hosted by her sorority. At the end of the first semester, Harold’s unit was transferred to an Air Force base in Texas. He and E. J. maintained contact, and later, E. J. and her mother traveled by troop train to Texas to visit him. During her sophomore year at Mt. Union, Harold and E. J. became engaged to be married. She temporarily ended her college career after her sophomore year, and became a clerk in the McCullough Department Store in Salem, OH.

On June 9 (her parents’ wedding anniversary), 1946, E. J. and Harold were married and moved into an apartment in Damascus. Harold worked for E. J.’s parent’s auto shop for a year. Their first son, Gary, was born in 1947; his sibling, Timothy, was born four years later.

In 1947, Harold began his 31-year career as an employee of the Babcock and Wilcox Research and Development Company in Alliance, OH. During this period, homemaker E. J., returned to Mt. Union College and earned a degree in Elementary Education, taught 3rd graders for several years, earned an M. S. Degree at the University of Akron, coached track and field teams, and coordinated the ski club. Her public services included serving as the West Branch Schools’ representative to both the Ohio Education Association and the National Education Association. She also directed the Damascus Methodist Church Choir for about a decade and was lead actress in several plays produced by the Carnation City Players of Alliance.

As her parents aged and the sons matured, E. J.’s activities shifted increasingly toward support of her parents. Her mother suffered a disabling stroke and died in 1965. Subsequently, E. J. attended to her father’s needs until his death in 1971.

After Harold retired in 1978, he and E. J. moved to Peoria, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) where they made many friends and played a lot of bridge and golf. There, E. J. sang in the Village Voices Choir, directed the children’s choir of the Lutheran Church, and participated in the Community Players Theater groups.

Sadly, Harold suffered kidney failure and for the last years of his life, required thrice weekly dialysis. During this difficult period, the couple went on a very memorable “dialysis cruise” to Alaska with other patients and their spouses.

E. J. chose to move back to Ohio after Harold’s death to be near son Gary and his family. She moved with her canine companion Spicey into her Stone Oak apartment in October, 2019. Gary, a retired teacher, is artistic director of the popular acapella ensemble “Singing Buckeyes”. Her younger son Timothy and his family live in Nevada. Timothy was a professor at Parkland College in IL and then a business owner of Jimmy John’s restaurants in Reno, NV.

E. J. has 6 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. She has traveled to all 50 states and several foreign countries. At Stone Oak she enjoys “friends, food, bridge, bingo, and dancing.”

- Fred Stephens, 5/09/2022