| Gertrude Burak Wolf |
2009
Gertrude Burak Wolf, 92, a congressional aide for almost 40 years, died Nov. 12 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville. She had
advanced coronary disease and multiple myeloma. She lived in Rockville.
Mrs. Wolf began working on Capitol Hill in 1955 as a legislative assistant to Rep. Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.), then chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee, who played a major role in drafting and passing the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation. Mrs. Wolf told
her nieces and nephews that she remembered President Lyndon B. Johnson's phone calls to Celler, ordering him to get the Voting Rights
Act passed.
After Celler retired in 1973, Mrs. Wolf went to work for Rep. Robert Kastenmeier (D-Wis.) until retiring herself in 1992.
Gertrude Burak was born in Philadelphia to immigrants from czarist Russia. She grew up in Washington and graduated from Theodore
Roosevelt High School. She sold hats during the Depression for the Palais Royal department store in Washington, then worked in the Navy
Department during World War II.
She later joined the Atomic Energy Commission after the war and worked at the Interior Department when Alaskan statehood was being
debated in the 1950s.
Mrs. Wolf's leg was amputated when she was in her 80s. She did volunteer work in Shady Grove Adventist Hospital's rehabilitation center
and visited amputee soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to encourage them.
She married her longtime companion, Israel Wolf, in 1975. He died in 2007.
Survivors include a sister, Betty Levin of Silver Spring.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Gertrude Burak Wolf, 92, a congressional aide for almost 40 years, died Nov. 12 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville. She had
advanced coronary disease and multiple myeloma. She lived in Rockville.
Mrs. Wolf began working on Capitol Hill in 1955 as a legislative assistant to Rep. Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.), then chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee, who played a major role in drafting and passing the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation. Mrs. Wolf told
her nieces and nephews that she remembered President Lyndon B. Johnson's phone calls to Celler, ordering him to get the Voting Rights
Act passed.
After Celler retired in 1973, Mrs. Wolf went to work for Rep. Robert Kastenmeier (D-Wis.) until retiring herself in 1992.
Gertrude Burak was born in Philadelphia to immigrants from czarist Russia. She grew up in Washington and graduated from Theodore
Roosevelt High School. She sold hats during the Depression for the Palais Royal department store in Washington, then worked in the Navy
Department during World War II.
She later joined the Atomic Energy Commission after the war and worked at the Interior Department when Alaskan statehood was being
debated in the 1950s.
Mrs. Wolf's leg was amputated when she was in her 80s. She did volunteer work in Shady Grove Adventist Hospital's rehabilitation center
and visited amputee soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to encourage them.
She married her longtime companion, Israel Wolf, in 1975. He died in 2007.
Survivors include a sister, Betty Levin of Silver Spring.
-- Patricia Sullivan