On Aug. 4, 1980, Rabbi Carl Wolkin pulled up in front of Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook. He was 33 years old and had just been hired as their new rabbi.

Little did he know that he would spend the next 35 years guiding one of the North Shore’s largest Conservative congregations through incredible growth and transformation. “It has been a remarkable journey,” said Wolkin, who is retiring at the end of June.

During Wolkin’s tenure, Beth Shalom’s membership more than doubled from 500 to over 1,250 families, the congregation became completely egalitarian and interfaith friendly, and kabbalat Shabbat services periodically includes live music. Wolkin has also taught the same Jewish current events class and Bible class every Tuesday, rain or shine, for the past 35 years.

Raised in Syracuse, N.Y., he is the only child of a salesman father and a homemaker mother. “My father was a furniture salesman and a very good one. That had an impact on me. I went into sales of a different kind. My father also was a hero who once saved a mother and child from drowning, which led me to career in which I could try to save souls.”

The Wolkins attended Adath Yeshurun, a Conservative synagogue whose first rabbi was Joseph Hertz, known among other things for editing the “Hertz Chumash.”

The rabbinate was an early calling. “If my mother were alive, she would tell you that I decided to become a rabbi when I was 12 and told my rabbi that someday I would have his job. I have no recollection of that, but I was one of those peculiar kids that liked Hebrew school,” he said.

Active in USY, he was told by his Hebrew school principal to go to Camp Ramah. “I was in a bunk that later become known as the bunk of machers since half of our bunk became successful Jewish professionals,” he said. “Those two years at Ramah [Nyack] when I was 14 and 15 really changed my life. That’s really where I decided to become a rabbi.”

It was while working at Ramah Berkshires in 1966 as a counselor that he met his future wife, Judy, who grew up in a more traditional Jewish home than Wolkin. “Judy likes to say she was speaking Hebrew before I knew what it was!” he quipped.

After Columbia University, Wolkin attended the Jewish Theological Seminary for rabbinical school. While there, he began teaching at the Hebrew High School of Temple Israel of Great Neck. “That turned out to be another one of those life defining moments,” said Wolkin, who ended up being hired as their assistant rabbi under Mordechai Waxman, one of the leading rabbis of the Conservative movement.

After eight years, Wolkin decided the time had come to move on and by coincidence (or serendipity), Beth Shalom in Northbrook had recently ended their relationship with their previous rabbi. Having been at the helm of Beth Shalom for so long, Wolkin has served three to four generations of the same family. “I have officiated at the B’nai Mitzvah of children of parents at whose b’nai mitzvah I have also officiated. There are kids I named, whose parents I married, and who are now members themselves. Nothing is better than that. They have made me part of their families and their lives,” he said.

Wolkin has also been deeply active in the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, having sat on numerous committees and boards. Beyond the missions to Israel he led for his own congregation, he has been to Israel through JUF many times, beginning with the first JUF Emergency Mission in 2000 and continuing through more than a dozen JUF Rabbinic missions. As a graduate of the first cohort of the Hartman Institute’s Center for Rabbinic Enrichment program, the expectation was that Wolkin would “give back.” “I never thought about that as an obligation. It became a labor of love. JUF has been one of the most rewarding things that I’ve done and my involvement with them continues. JUF is unique place where everything you do serves the higher purpose of helping your fellow Jews all over the world. That has been a core value and satisfaction of my rabbinate,” he said.

Wolkin’s community involvement includes serving as President of the Chicago Region of the Rabbinical Assembly, President of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, and President of the Community Mikvah of the Conservative Movement.

But perhaps Wolkin is most proud of his family: two grown sons, Josh and David, and daughter-in-law, Keeli. “My partnership with Judy and our love for each other and the Jewish community have yielded two kids and a daughter-in-law who all work for nonprofits. We couldn’t be prouder; even the apple by marriage hasn’t fallen far from the tree,” he said.

Looking back, Wolkin is happy with his life’s work. “Being a rabbi is a challenge. It is very hard work, but I loved it. I can’t imagine anything else that would have given me the opportunity to connect with people and help them grow and celebrate and grieve and heal,” he said.

But the best part of retirement, besides being able to “do whatever I want whenever I want,” he said, is that he and Judy will be able to sit next to each other at synagogue.

Abigail Pickus is a writer and editor living in Evanston.