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Louis Wolff (April 14, 1898 – January 28, 1972) was an American cardiologist and college professor.[1] He was the chief of the electrocardiographic laboratory at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston from 1928 to 1964. In 1930, Wolffe described the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome with John Parkinson and Paul Dudley White.[1][2]
Wolfff was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1898.[1] His parents immigrated to the United States from Lithuania but had previously lived in Peru and London.[1] His childhood was spend in Revere, Massachusetts and South Boston, Massachusetts.[3] He attended The English High School in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.[1]
Wolff went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a degree in biology and public health in 1918.[1] He played violin and conducted in a dance orchestra to pay for college.[1] After graduation, he considered going to Europe to study music; because World War I, he remained in the United States and went to medical school.[1]
He enrolled in Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1922.[1] He completed an internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1922 to 1924[1]
Wolff continued to work at the Massachusetts General Hospital with Paul Dudley White, staying there from 1924 to 1928.[1] Next, he worked at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston as the chief of the electrocardiographic laboratory, remaining in this position from 1928 until his retirement in 1964.[1] In 1930, Wolffe described the eponymously named Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome with John Parkinson and Paul Dudley White.[1][2] He also conducted pioneering work in vectorcardiography.[3]
Wolfe was also a clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.[2][3] He published the textbook Electrocardiography in Fundamentals and Clinical Application in 1950.[1] He served as president of the New England Cardiovascular Society.[2]
In 1920, Wolff married Alice Muscanto, a flute player born in Vilnius, Lithuania. She played with her sisters and brothers in Muscanto's Russian Orchestra, a touring musical ensemble founded by her father Louis Muscanto.[4] Louis and Alice had two children, Lea Wolff and Richard Wolff.[3] They lived in Brookline, Massachusetts.[3]
After Alice's death, Wolff married Phyllis Raftell; the daughter of Greek immigrants who had previously worked as Wolff's medical secretary.[5] They had two children, Sarah Wolff and Charles Wolff.[5][3]
Wolff died of Parkinson's disease in the Beth Israel Hospital on January 28, 1972.[2][1] His funeral services were held in the Levine Chapel in Brookline.[3] He was buried in Moses Mendelsohn Cemetery. Two of his children entered the medical field: Richard became a cardiologist and Charles became a physician.[5][1]
