When interviewed in 2000 as a “centenarian,” Franz Wolf attributed his longevity to deep devotion to family and his love for his work as an economist. Nathan Associates was fortunate to benefit from Mr. Wolf’s formidable skills as an economist ffrom 1953 until 1986, when he stepped down from the firm’s Board of Directors. While with the firm, Mr. Wolf was involved in many far-ranging domestic, foreign, and international projects, especially projects involving transportation and facilities for handling bulk cargoes, general freight, and passengers by sea, road, and air. In 1970, he devised a comprehensive plan for development of all transport modes in Malaysia that included training for Malaysian economists, engineers, and administrators.

Before joining the firm, Mr. Wolf was Director of Research and Statistics and Deputy Director of the Office of Economic Policy in Washington, D.C. From 1943-1951, he directed the Wage Policy Division and the Business Controls Department at the Research Institute of America in New York; from 1941-1943 he was an editor at the Journal of Commerce in New York and Washington, D.C.; and from 1936-1941 he was a statistician and economist at Bear, Stearns & Co. Mr. Wolf fled Germany for the United States in 1936, where he had been an Associate Editor and Economist for the Frankfurter Zeitung, and Chief of the Information and Statistical Department of the Dresdner Bank in Stuttgart. He graduated from the University of Freiburg in 1922.