Born in Thailand in 1921 to missionary parents, Claralice and her twin sister were home schooled by their mother, until eleven when they went to India to an American boarding school. At sixteen, they entered a boarding Academy, then college in Illinois. It was there Claralice met her future husband, and they were married three months after he graduated from seminary, the day after she graduated from college.

His first pastorate was in Massachusetts, then they went into mission work in Appalachia: four years in a five point country parish, six years in a large project in the coal mining area.

In the meantime, three children were born, two daughters and a son. When they needed better schools, the family moved to New Jersey where Carl worked in executive service for the Synod, then a nine year pastorate in Cranbury.

Claralice worked in the library of Princeton University until the last college bills were paid, then the Wolfs moved to Kentucky to oversee an institution for disadvantaged children. She has written a book about that experience, One Hundred and One Children.

Ohio was next, a parish ministry, then Carl retired. The first thing was to visit Thailand to see her twin sister, her first trip home in 45 years. She still knew the language.

It was in the next years that Claralice began to write seriously. She has won many blue ribbons and awards for her short stories. This is the first long work.

Carl and Claralice live in a retirement community in a small town, and she often wonders, “What am I doing in Ohio!”

Author of:

Prynne’s Island by Claralice Hanna Wolf