Isaac Wolfson

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Sir Isaac Wolfson, 1st Baronet FRS (September 17, 1897 – June 20, 1991) was a businessman and philanthropist. He was chairman of The Great Universal Stores Limited 1947-1987 and established the Wolfson Foundation.

Isaac Wolfson was the son of a Jewish cabinet maker, an immigrant from Russia who settled in the Gorbals in Glasgow, Scotland. He was educated at Queen's Park School, Glasgow. His significant fortune was based on a very successful mail order business, Great Universal Stores. He joined the company as a merchandising controller in 1932, becoming a managing director in the same year. He was appointed Chairman in the late 1940s and retired in 1987, to be succeeded by Leonard Wolfson, his son.

In 1955, Wolfson established the Wolfson Foundation, to aid in the advancement of education, health and youth activities. This supported the establishment of Wolfson College, Oxford (where he was a Founder Fellow) and Wolfson College, Cambridge among many other projects over the years. Professorships named after him exist at Bar-Ilan, Haifa, Jerusalem, Oxford and Tel Aviv.

Wolfson married Edith Specterman in 1926. Until 1960 he lived in Worcester; he then moved to London. He received a baronetcy in the Queen's 1962 New Year's Honours list, becoming Wolfson of St. Marylebone. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1963 under Statute 12. In 1971, he was awarded the Freedom of the City of Glasgow. He died in Israel in 1991.