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Mike Wolfberg's Biographical Info

Michael was born in Miami, FL, and moved to Buffalo, NY before he was one year old. He attended elementary school at Public School #16 in Buffalo, skipping seventh grade. While in eighth grade, he moved to Clarence, NY, where he continued in grades 8-12, graduating from Clarence Central High School in 1959; he shared second place in his graduating class.

Michael then attended M.I.T. and received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1963. From there, he went straight on to graduate school at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He received an M.S. in Computer and Information Sciences in 1965 and a Ph.D. in the same field in 1969.

Michael returned to the Boston, MA area in the Spring of 1969 and took a job with Massachusetts Computer Associates, later named Compass. Compass closed its doors in the Fall of 1991. Michael worked at Compass for about 22 years. After taking a few months off, he then went to work for Interleaf, Inc., where he was employed for five years. After another period of time off, Mike joined Belsoft, Inc. in the late summer of 1998. He continued to work there as employee #2 of 2 for about 5 years, co-creating EDGE, a source code editor which understands the C language and is thus able to enhance programmer productivity. He continued to consult to this company after leaving full-time employment. Since December 2003, Mike has been developing WHAT, a program for word enthusiasts, especially Scrabble® players, which he began to market in mid-2005. The program includes lexicons for working in English, French, and Spanish.

Some folks have noticed that Mike now resembles the famous dead (pun intended) musician Jerry Garcia. He used to be one of several Scrabble player look-alikes on Jim Geary's web site, but that site has disappeared.

Michael married Julia in 1968, and they moved to Concord, MA in 1971, where they parented two children, Nancy and David. Julia passed away in 1988. She had worked for the former Digital Equipment Corporation for over 20 years.

Nancy works as a Senior Accountant at Tierpoint Corporation in St. Louis, MO where she lives. She completed her BBA in Public Accounting Summa Cum Laude from Pace University. Nancy is reachable by e-mail at nancy@newmeric.net.

David graduated as a Music major and Philosophy minor from Tufts University in Medford, MA. in 1998. He moved to Maui, Hawaii in early 2006 and currently performs music professionally full time, both as an electric bass player and as vocalist/guitarist. His professional website is DavidWolfWeddings.com. He is reachable by e-mail at wolf@goodfoot.net.

Michael married Wendy Ford of Marblehead, MA on May 9, 1998. She chose Wendy F. Wolfberg as her married name. Wendy had worked in education and training as an instructional designer, course developer, and project manager. Wendy passed away in November, 2021 due to sudden blood vessels breaking in her brain. She was survived by five brothers.

Wendy reenergized her cabaret singing through BACA (Boston Association of Cabaret Artists) and in January, 2014 completed a cabaret masterclass with reknowned NYC talent Lina Koutrakos and the late Rick Jensen. It was a "dream-come-true" and key turning point for her. Wendy rehearsed with Doug Hammer of Dreamworld Productions. She practiced regularly by performing at various open mics around Boston.

A number of years ago Wendy published a book that is still available through Amazon.com or the International Cultic Studies Association bookstore.

In early 1980, Michael began to play competitive Scrabble® at the newly formed club in Lexington, and he has continued to be quite involved with this game. He is usually ranked among the top 250 tournament players in North America and the top 12 in Massachusetts. See Mike's Scrabble® Page for general information or Mike's personal Scrabble® page for his own achievements.

Michael was also an active indoor badminton player until 2017, when arthritis caused him to stop playing. He had played in various public clubs in the Boston area. See Mike's Badminton Page for a variety of badminton information.

Michael enjoys concert attendance for a variety of music styles. See Mike's Culture Page for some specific links to entertainment sites.

Another strong interest of Michael is the enjoyment of dining well. See his unmaintained Mike's Restaurant Guide.

Michael's food interests have influenced him to pursue cooking. A few of his recipes are available here on this web site at Mike's Recipe Page.