Irwin Phillip Wolk

A beloved brother, husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather & Uncle, Irwin P. Wolk passed away at his home in West Palm Beach Fla at the age of 96 on September 4th. He was born June 26, 1927 in Brooklyn NY, to parents Tillie & Aaron. He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife of 71 years Anita & younger brother Jerry. He is survived by his younger brother Stanley, his daughter Adrienne, his son Jeff (Jeff’s wife Sandy), grandchildren Samantha (John) Maguire & Eric (Jasmine) Wolk and great grandchildren, Aidan & Dylan Maguire & Ezra Wolk, loving nieces and nephews.

Irwin graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York. After High School, Irwin served in the Army as an MP at a prisoner of war camp in Germany, then transferred to the Signal Corps in Frankfurt Germany. While in Germany, he was lucky enough to travel to France & Switzerland and was even able to visit relatives in England.

After leaving the service, he received his Associate of Arts Degree from Mohawk Valley Community College. In 1948 he married the love of his life, Anita, and together they started a family.

His long career in the corrugated box industry first started as a salesman working for Industrial Container Corporation in New York, then Sales Manager for Mead Containers in Baltimore Maryland and General Manager for Mead Container in North Bergen, NJ. He Eventually started his own business in 1967 as a distributor of corrugated boxes in Carteret NJ. He then went on to open his own manufacturing & contract packaging facility, American Packaging & National Contract Packaging in Jersey City NJ. He then formed Packaging Concepts and retired in 2001.

Along with other owners of independent corrugated companies, he helped form the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters in November of 1974 where he served as the first Vice President of the northeast region.

Both Irwin & Anita gave of themselves in many ways, including volunteering their time at Temple Sharey Tefilo in East Orange NJ and to B’nai B’rith while living in Maplewood NJ. Irwin volunteered his time helping to coach the temple basketball team. Upon his retirement, he & Anita moved into Golden Lakes Village where Irwin served on the board and Anita volunteered at the community temple.

Not only did Irwin give of his time to the temple and community, but he was also always there for family, offering assistance to his immediate family and his many Aunts & Uncles when needed.

Irwin’s family would like to extend a special thanks to the health care aides that provided around the clock care, The VA Medical Home Team and Vitas Healthcare.