Stanley R. Wolfe | Lawyer, school founder, 64

Stanley R. Wolfe, 64, of Center City, a litigation lawyer who helped establish a charter school, died of an apparent heart attack Thursday at home.

Mr. Wolfe cochaired the securities litigation department of the law firm Berger & Montague in Philadelphia for more than 20 years.

In 1999, he retired as a partner in the firm to help establish the Young Scholars Charter School in North Philadelphia. The middle school emphasizes small classes and prepares students for academically excellent high schools. In 2001, he told a reporter he had made enough money and now wanted to "break the cycle of illiteracy." He was the school's chief administrative officer until 2004.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Wolfe earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, where he was a member of the tennis team, and a law degree from Yale University. In the 1970s, he was a member of the Pennsylvania attorney general's environmental pollution strike force and then directed the attorney general's narcotics control strike force.

He was passionate about his family, the Jewish community, and tennis, his daughter Jennifer said.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Wolfe is survived by daughters Toby and Lee; sons Ari and Eli; a brother; two grandchildren; and his former wives, Barbara Wolfe and Margaret Stabert.

The funeral was Sunday at Joseph Levine & Sons Memorial Chapel in Trevose. Burial was in King David Memorial Park, Bensalem.