ORONO – James L. Wolfhagen, 85, died March 13, 2006, at the Maine Veterans’ Home, Bangor from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was born Dec. 9, 1920, in Portland, Ore., the son of Carl and Gladys (Burr) Wolfhagen. He was raised on a small farm in Damascus, Ore. and graduated from Gresham High School. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1943, serving in Europe and the Pacific. He received his AB at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore. in 1946. He met Helen Jane Acheson at the University of California – Berkeley. Helen and Jim were married in 1948, and then graduated with a PhD. in chemistry in 1951. Jim and Helen moved to Orono in 1952, where Jim taught chemistry at the University of Maine for 34 years. Jim was active in the Orono-Old Town Kiwanis, the American Chemical Society, the Penobscot Paddle and Chowder Society, the McBang User Group and the Cub Scouts. Jim proctored the chemistry Olympiad, a competition for high school chemistry students. Jim is survived by his wife, Helen; and the families of his three children, Carl Wolfhagen and his wife, Ellen Youdin Wolfhagen, of Olympia, Wash., Margaret Pease and her husband, Carl, of Hampden, Roger Acker-Wolfhagen and his wife, Nancy, of Gorham; seven grandchildren, Eli and Jesse Wolfhagen, Jennifer Turnbull and Shannon Maher, Elizabeth, Jonathan and Anne Acker-Wolfhagen; and two great-grandchildren, Elizabeth and Molly Turnbull. Jim is also survived by many students, graduate students, foreign and domestic, and friends including Inna and Katya Besborodko. A service of remembrance will be held 2 p.m. Sunday, March 19, at Brookings-Smith, LaBeau Chapel, 72 Main St., Orono. Friends may call 1 p.m. Sunday until time of the service. Gifts in Jim’s memory may be donated to the endowment funding the James L. and Helen J. Wolfhagen Award (for students of chemistry), Office of University Development, University of Maine, 101 College Ave., Orono, ME 04469 or with a donation to the Maine Veterans’ Home, 44 Hogan Rd., Bangor, ME 04401. Condolences to the family may be expressed at www.BrookingsSmith.com
JAMES L. WOLFHAGEN
