Trivial Water and Sewer Fun Stuff

When Joseph C. Woolf enrolled at Georgia Tech he wanted to be a civil engineer. But fate intervened. Woolf developed an osteomyelitis infection when he was a junior and was forced to redirect his ambition. Instead of becoming an engineer. The whole thing . started when he twisted his leg playing tennis . He got a bruise but didn't pay any attention to it until several weeks later when his legs buckled and he would up on a stretcher in the infirmary. That was the beginning of 11 years n and out of hospitals while doctors fought to curb the spreading infection.

After the loss of his leg he went back to work with the Atlanta Gas Light· Co., and then during WWII went to work at the Opalocka Naval Air Station where he worked until being hired by Lake Worth. He wound up years later as one of the most highly respected men in the water and sewer fields in the state. It was that expertise in those fields that influenced the city of Lake Worth in to hire him in 1959 as the city's first superintendent of the water treatment plant and sewer systems even though he had lost that leg. He did not see it as a handicap. He used crutches to help his get around the utility plant. What set Woolf apart om others m his field is that he entered a profession which calls for physical as well as mental dexterity He has walked with crutches on one leg since 1937 as a result of the infection. From his first day on the job here. Woolf amazed employees as he climbed ladders and rapidly walked the catwalks by the water plant settling basins high above the ground with a sure-footed gait. After retiring from Lake Worth Joe went to work as the LeCroix Cooper Sewer Plant in Cooper City as its Director.

Woolf attended State Board of Health short courses to gain knowledge in the fields and in 1955 received the top rated A water certificate for operators. He attained the same rating for sewage in 1959. Joseph C, Woolf Is a· past president of the FWPCOA.

As a past president and secretary of the FWPCOA, Woolf helped spearhead a movement for statewide operators compulsory certification. Two years ago the measure was approved by the state legislature. As current chairman of the State Advisory Certification Board Woolf is supporting a movement which will require certified personnel in all fields of water distribution, sewer collection. sanitary landfills and municipal incinerators. He taught operators throughout Florida to help them become certified.