Edgar P. Wolf, the treasurer of the Perfex Radiator Company and one of the wide-awake, alert and enterprising young business men of Racine, was born in Chicago, October 6, 1891, a son of J. P. and Emily J. (Augustus) Wolf. The father was engaged in the stone business and in the building and real estate business. He afterward served for ten years as United States marshal, retiring from that position on the 1st of January, 1916. He is not now actively connected with any business affairs, although he is financially interested in the Perfex Radiator Company and holds the office of secretary.
E. P. Wolf, after attending .the public schools of Chicago, became a student in the University of Chicago and after his textbooks were put aside was engaged in various manufacturing and commercial lines in different capacities until the organization of the Automobile Radiator & Parts Manufacturing Company, in which he was associated with F. M. Opitz and others. They developed the largest enterprise of this character in Chicago and Mr. Wolf became one of its directors. At length plans were perfected to remove the business to Racine and the company took over the invention and patents of F. M. Opitz, who had brought forth a radiator which was an improvement on all others that had hitherto been manufactured for internal combustion engine use. The plant was established at Racine, the business was reorganized and the company incorporated and Mr. Wolf at that time became treasurer of the company and is still active in the management and control of the business, which from the beginning has grown steadily and rapidly. Improvements have been made on the radiator each year and it is now accepted as a standard product. Something of the growth of the business is indicated in the fact that there are now two hundred employees and the plant is working to its full capacity, the trade steadily growing until the output is now sent to all parts of the country, being used largely by tractor and automobile manufacturers.
On the 28th of October, 1914, Mr. Wolf was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Vera Smith, of Boston, Massachusetts, a daughter of George B. and Jennie Smith. They now have one child, George Byron. Mr. Wolf is a devoted and consistent member of the First Methodist Episcopal church. In social circles of the community he and his wife are held in high esteem and Mr. Wolf has won a most creditable position among the progressive business men of his adopted city.
