On Saturday night, Brooklyn was the site of a 160th birthday party. But it wasn’t a celebration for the world’s oldest person.
It was a 40th birthday celebration for a set of quadruplets — John, Andrew, Katharine and Jeffrey Wolf —who took the world by storm when they were born in London in 1979. News of their birth was covered by everyone from “Good Morning America” to The Washington Post.
“Our birthday is actually Nov. 15, but all of my siblings fly around the world for our party,” said John, the only New York-based quad. “We try to do it every year.”
The foursome (who have an older brother named James), span the globe. Andrew, the oldest by three minutes, lives in Singapore, where he has an artificial intelligence company. Jeffrey, is a a scholar in Berlin. Katharine lives in San Francisco where she has an online platform, called Odetta, that helps Middle Eastern women work in tech. John, the youngest, lives in Brooklyn and works in real estate.
The quadruplets grew up in Washington, D.C., where their parents placed them all in separate schools.
“My parents made sure we dressed differently and had different identities,” said John. “That’s been the genesis of our parties. When we were kids, we would have all our friends from different schools in D.C. come and celebrate.”
And while holidays can be tough to coordinate with everyone’s soaring careers and familial obligations, they try to never miss a birthday celebration.
“We remain close,” said John. “Sometimes we just call each other and look at each other on FaceTime and hang up, and it’s just known it’s enough.”
