Archives West Finding Aid

Wallace G. Woolf was born March 9, 1890, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He attended local public schools and the University of Utah School of Mines, from which he graduated in 1912 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mining Engineering. He worked briefly in Nevada then returned to the University of Utah as a recipient of the Co. E.A. Wall Research Fellowship. He specialized in zinc metallurgy and was awarded his M.S. in 1915. He remained at the university for another year as a U.S. Bureau of Mines Fellow, during which he continued his study of zinc. He then spent two years in industrial employment in Utah with the Holt-Dern Process Co. at Silver City, and the Virginia Smelting Co. of West Norfolk, Virginia.

Woolf joined the Bunker Hill Company in 1918, and was given the specific assignment to develop a process for handling the complex zinc ores of the Coeur d'Alene mining district. This he did, utilizing some Tainton-Pring patents with modifications and innovations worked out in the North Mill pilot plant. Encouraged by his results, in 1926 the company went ahead with construction of a zinc processing plant which he, with the help of U.C. Tainton, designed and built. Two years later, as a result of Woolf's research and guidance, the plant produced the first commercially available slab of special high grade 99.99 percent pure electrolytic zinc. He oversaw operations at the plant for almost 30 years, before becoming manager of metallurgy and later vice-president in charge of Kellogg operations, the position he held when he retired from Bunker Hill in 1960. In 1954 he supervised the construction of Bunker Hill's first sulfuric acid plant to treat roaster off-gases. He wrote many professional articles and was active in professional organizations, including serving as a director and vice-president of the Northwest Mining Association, and director of the American Zinc Institute. He was a past master of the Masons, a Shriner, and a member of Gyro International. In 1955 he was presented with Scouting's highest honor, the Silver Beaver Award, for his leadership over many years in Shoshone County Boy Scout activities. He received the National Society of Professional Engineers "Inland Empire Engineer of the Year" award in 1958.

Following his retirement he returned to Salt Lake City where he remained active as a lecturer at his alma mater, and also served as a metallurgical consultant. Woolf died in Salt Lake City on September 15, 1990.