A young Wolfensberger. This picture was taken in 1964. He looks into the camera, a faint smile on his lips.
‘No one in the Twentieth Century has had such a profound impact on the languages, content, imagery, integrity, cadre training efforts or literature in the field of developmental disabilities as Wolf Wolfensberger…’ William Bronston, MD
Wolfensberger in 1998, book and pen in hand. He looks off to the right clearly engaged and smiling at someone.
Wolf was always thought-provoking and often provocative and controversial. One does not need to agree with everything Wolf wrote to recognize his tremendous contributions to our field. He stands among a small group of leaders in the 1960s and 1970s who radically changed how we think about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and how we treat them." – Steven Taylor, PhD.
Wolfensberger, middle aged. He looks into the camera, arms crossed, holding his chin and smiling.
There is a “broad consensus among many people in a number of countries that Wolf has been one of the most influential thinkers of the last half-century or more in mental retardation.” – Robert J. Flynn, PhD.
Wolfensberger lighting candles on a traditional Christmas tree at home. Christmas 1991.
“Wolf was a charismatic presence with a great love of life. He was a gifted and demanding teacher. He intentionally built networks of people (in many countries) whom he considered potential leaders by engaging them in intensive and rigorous workshops, recruiting them into team experiences, and assigning them responsibility for presenting and writing about the foundations, content, and implications of the theories that he judged would best respond to the real needs of marginalized and vulnerable people.” – John O’Brien
“Today many star-struck folks in the field overemphasize the “doctor” in his title. But to us he was just plain “Wolfie,” and he was the greatest creator of fresh programs we ever knew in our whole lives”.
(Robert Perske, 2002).