James Wolf is an Illinois farm boy. The youngest of six children, he was born to a family who struggled through the years of the great Depression. Losing their farm, the family eventually moved to the village of Odell, Illinois, where he attended St Paul Catholic School. Upon graduation he entered St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa. Following a vocation to the Catholic priesthood, he then entered the Major Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois. After 13 years in the priesthood, Wolf left the Diocese of Peoria and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where in, in 1974, he married Marcella Bachler. They have 3 children. After their marriage they moved to Ramah, New Mexico, where Marcella worked as a… social worker in the Zuni Pueblo and James began nearly 3 decades of working for Navajo organizations in the areas of education and community development.