PROFITS & passions: Catherine Wolf

Westchester County Business Journal, Jan 29, 2007 by Rozycki, Bob

Catherine Wolf no longer can speak.

Her body no longer moves; not the way it once did when she could run 15 miles a week on the roads around her Katonah home. In her very first 10k race, run on her 40th birthday, she took first place.

The steps and positions learned in dance and ballet classes are but memories.

She has no physical movement other than a nearly imperceptive one in her eyes and head and of course the rise and fall of her chest as a ventilator fills her lungs via a tube attached through an opening in her throat.

It was that devastating acronym ALS that crept into her body back in the summer of 1996. "I noticed I couldn't flex my left foot in modern dance and also had pain in my left calf when I ran. By fall, I was walking with a limp and had muscle twitches in my left leg (an early symptom of ALS)." She answers questions via an electronics setup attached to her head that runs to her computer and allows her to slowly pick and choose letters and commonly used words from a square grid using the slight movement that remains in her head. She has been using it for about three years.

ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, destroys motor neurons, which are responsible for sending messages to muscles. Muscles then weaken and lose their ability to move, affecting not just the legs, feet, arms and hands, but those that control swallowing and breathing.

Hey, but this is no sob story; Wolf would not have any part of that. She has defied the odds of most who are afflicted with ALS and die after five years.

Her voice now comes through her poems; the messages ringing loud and clear, no matter the topic, which can run from political injustice to love.

Her limerick on President Bushs opposition to stem-cell research is razor-sharp and to the point.

The Frat Boy from Yale

There once was a frat boy from Yale

Who thought stem cell research beyond the pale

"It is taking a life"

But what if his wife

Had Lou Gehrig's, would he think it the Holy Grail?

Wolf writes when she can't sleep in the morning.

"The poems mostly write themselves, mostly ALS related. For political poetry, I have to check facts at the computer."

Asked what she hopes to accomplish with her poens, she replied:

"For ALS poetry, I want to show there is life after ALS. The political poetry is partly grousing with my friends and partly, I hope it motivates them to action."

She says she is blessed with an optimistic, persistent nature.

"I try to focus on what I can do, not on what I can't. While I loved my job, I think I am more of a force for good now.

Wolf was born in Washington, D.C., following World War II. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Tufts University in 1969 and followed it up with a doctorate in psychology from Brown University in 1974. Post-doctorate studies followed at MIT. She worked at Bell Labs from 1977-85 and then at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown from 1985 until 2003 when she went on long-term disability. Her area of specialization was human-computer interaction, the human side she emphasizes.

Along the way she married Joel Wolf and had two daughters, Erika and Laura. Erika took ballet at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts where Catherine served on its board.

For the second year in a row, Wolf is a committee member of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) fund raiser for Westchester and Fairfield, Conn., counties. The MDA supports research for ALS, which costs $65 each minute to fund.

Called An Evening of Hope and Dreams, the money that's raised benefits patient services and research that the Westchester and Fairfield offices support, including the Columbia University ALS Center, formally known as the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Center and a free camp for children with muscular dystrophy.

"I have really benefited from the MDA. I was treated at the Columbia ALS Center and went to Helen Hayes Hospital for assistive technology, like my head switch, both supported by MDA. My wheelchair is from the MDA loan closet."

ALS can strike anyone, of any race or ethnic background, and at any age. About 80 percent or cases begin between the ages of 40 and 70.

As for her bright outlook, Wolf writes:

"I think optimism is a trait you're born with. Sometimes people faced with a serious disease find they have more strength than they thought."

Resolved

I refuse to die

I choose to defy

Prognosis (poor)

I will see

Daughters

Graduate

Marry

Grandchildren

I refuse to die

I choose to defy

Prognosis (guarded)

I must

Love

Help

Work

Dream

Eat chocolate every day

I refuse to die

I choose to survive

Prognosis (good)

The MDA/ALS fund-raiser, An Evening of Hope and Dreams, will be held May 23 at the Italian Center of Stamford. For information, call the MDA/ALS Westchester chapter at (914) 345-5062.