Regent Emeritus donates music and legal expertise to college
By Roscoe Crenshaw
For the St. Louis American
“I do love jazz,” Donald L. Wolff said Monday evening, during his keynote address at the 2005 commencement ceremony for Harris-Stowe State College at Powell Symphony Hall.
“But I also love this college.”
These two loves coincided a few years ago, when Wolff and his wife, Heide, donated their huge jazz archives to Harris-Stowe.
Dr. Henry Givens Jr., president of Harris-Stowe State College, valued that gift at “over $1 million – the largest donation by an individual that the college has ever received” and said it was the first step in forming the Don and Heide Wolff Jazz Institute at Harris-Stowe.
“Don was a great and a very active Board of Regents member for the past 10 years. He is a very serious person about education and human rights,” Givens said at a reception prior to the commencement.
“He was the one who always fought for students and their benefits. We used to call him ‘the ringleader’ for students.”
Wolff, an attorney by trade as well as jazz specialist and deejay, also has served on the legal advisory committee of Harris-Stowe’s board.
Providing legal assistance at little or no cost to local African-American institutions and activists is a hallmark of Wolff’s contributions to the community.
Jim Buford, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, said, “He’s been my general counsel. That’s pro bono. He’s done a lot of legal work for the past 18 years, free of charge.”
Buford added that Wolff served as chairman of the Urban League’s board for three years and, during that period, found another lawyer to provide free legal counsel.
Buford said Wolff has “done a lot of legal work for Big Brothers, Big Sisters and other African-American organizations.”
“The Urban League model has always been equalizing life for all people,” Wolff said. “I have tried to adapt the Urban League’s model as my own model, equalizing opportunity in and out of courtrooms.”
Attorney Charles Kirksey said Wolff “has been selfless in terms of supporting black civil rights causes and those who have championed those causes,” adding that “on many occasions, he has offered his services pro bono.”
U.S. District Judge Charles A. Shaw said, “Don Wolff has given a lot to the community – law, as well as his music. He has contributed to activities of a number of organizations and has been very active in the community.”
Attorney Arthur Margulis said, “I have been friends with Don since high school (University City). He should be commended for the enormous amount of time and effort he devotes to charitable causes.”
The son of a University City grocer, Wolff was the first in his family to attend college when he enrolled at the University of Missouri-Columbia during the Korean War. An interest in student government and reading Clarence Darrow drew him toward the legal profession, specifically criminal defense, which he described as “the only kind of law that I ever wanted to practice.”
As an undergrad, Wolff was assigned to the artillery division of the U.S. Army ROTC and received a two-year deferment, which was extended to four years when he entered law school.
After graduation, Wolff requested assignment in Europe. In Germany, he served as a defense lawyer and later prosecutor for the Army, rising to the position of Assistant Judge Advocate.
It was in Germany that he met his wife, Heide. They are the proud parents of two sons, Nelson and Michael (both also lawyers), and a daughter, Kristen, who works in international business.
Once safely returned to home, Wolff continued his legal career, serving in leadership positions with the bar associations of the city and state, regularly providing on-air legal analysis for local media outlets and earning the admiration of colleagues and clients.
“I consider him a consummate criminal defense lawyer. He’s an excellent trial lawyer and an ethical lawyer,” said attorney Scott Rosenblum.
“Don should be considered a role model for all the young men and women aspiring to be criminal defense lawyers.”
Wolff also developed into a local jazz specialist and booster without peer, despite never having studied music or played a note himself.
Most local jazz lovers know him as the host of “Saturday Night Jazz” on KMOX 1120 AM. He hosted the Anita Berry Jazz Cruise for 12 years and has lectured and shown his jazz films all over the country. He continues to show jazz films as a public service at community centers, nursing homes, senior citizens facilities and children’s organizations.
He also has used his radio show to promote many community jazz projects, such as Young Jazz Messengers, a group of promising African-American musicians managed by the late Edwin Salter.
With regard to jazz, Wolff said he strives to be historically grounded as well as current. He treasures the swing music of the forties. Johnny Hodges and Benny Goodman are favorites. Wolff referred to Kansas City tenor saxophonist Ben Webster as “my main man” and St. Louis trumpeter Clark Terry as “my homey.”
He paid homage to Duke Ellington as “my favorite composer,” saying that Ellington accomplished so much more than just the orchestra for which he was renowned.
Wolff’s preference, he said, is for smaller groups, like Count Basie’s octet.
“You are in the middle of their communication,” he said. “You feel like they are talking to you.”
Wolff was himself talking to the young graduates of Harris-Stowe on Monday night at their commencement, when he was awarded with an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the college. He challenged them to use their education to “give back” to the community, to “solve the problem of poverty, hunger, homelessness.”
Seeking to inspire in the graduates the vitality and resourcefulness that has epitomized his own life, Wolff advised them: “You should live each day as if it is your last.”