WOHL, MAX (20 Sept. 1908 - 27 Oct. 1999) was a life long socialist, a former chair of the American Civil Liberties Union of Cleveland and an executive for Tremco Manufacturing Co. He was born in Cleveland to Sarah (Chenkin) and Solomon Wohl. After graduating from East Technical High School in 1928, he went to work as an office boy for Tremco. He was vice president of finance when he took early retirement in 1969. Wohl left Tremco so he could volunteer full time with the American Civil Liberties Union of Cleveland, which was in a period of decline at the time. He boosted the membership and managed the local office without pay for 15 years.
Wohl ran for political offices as a Socialist Party candidate, including Ohio secretary of state, when Norman Thomas was the party's candidate for president. He also was a contributor to numerous organizations that supported social causes. Serving as the executive director of the Cleveland office and on the national board of the Workmen's Circle, a century old labor and fraternal organization dedicated to the perpetuation of Yiddish culture, he was instrumental in starting an endowment fund for the Yiddish Concert in the Park at Cain Park Theater. Wohl received the Cleveland ACLU chapter's Civil Libertarian of the Century award.
Wohl married Sylvia Epstein in 1933 and had a daughter, Lenore (Cohn), and two sons, Arthur and Edward.
Finding aid for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, Cleveland Chapter Records. WRHS.