Donald D. Wolff Jr., a leading investment adviser and altruist from Fox Chapel, died Thursday from complications from prostate cancer. He was 63.

Fairness was a focus of Donny Wolff, whether that be in investment portfolios, the charity board room or the golf course, said two men who grew up alongside him 60 years ago in Point Breeze.

"His eye was always extroverted -- on what he could achieve to make life better," said Nick Beckwith III, chairman of the UPMC board.

"He was tremendously outgoing," said Richard Meyer, who helped found Guyasuta Investment Advisors with his longtime friend. "He was all about what he could do to make life easier and better for others."

This may have been best represented by his work on the UPMC board. With a finance background at Mellon Bank and later Guyasuta, an asset management firm, Mr. Wolff could have been expected to look only at the bottom line. But starting on Shadyside Hospital's board in the 1980s and later UPMC's, he instead took up quality care -- the testing and reporting of matters such as infection controls, hospital mortality rates and patient comfort.

Quality care is a major issue in the hospital universe now, but not so two decades ago.

"He focused the management team on it, to make it as important as the balance sheet," Mr. Beckwith said. "He was a visionary and ahead of his time -- he took something diffuse, undervalued, underinformed and undernourished, and made it a science."

Mr. Wolff's father founded a variety of Pittsburgh-area businesses, among them Reymer's Blennd, the lemonade concentrate. He and wife Jane Sloan Wolff sent Donald Jr. to Ellis School (when it had a nursery for boys), Shady Side Academy and the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.

In 1967, Mr. Wolff graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and from the Wharton School two years later, getting married to Carolyn "Bunny" Davis in between. He joined Mellon Bank in 1969, eventually becoming director of investment research and strategy before leaving for what would become Guyasuta in 1983.

The firm -- founded by Mr. Wolff, Mr. Meyer and two others -- was originally known as Scheetz Smith & Co. The Downtown firm sold its municipal securities wing to Mellon in 1994 and changed its name.

Along the way Mr. Wolff played a lot of golf. The Fox Chapel Golf Club member and 4 or 5 handicap became something of a golf historian, traveled to links in Ireland and Scotland ("Dunzee" is Scot), and became president of the Pennsylvania Golf Association, following his partner Ted Scheetz into the job.

The main responsibility was overseeing rules for amateur tournaments across the state, which suited him well.

"He made sure anybody had a chance to win -- you didn't have to belong to a country club to play," Mr. Meyer said. "He tried to take the snobbery out of golf and make competition open to anyone."

Mr. Wolff was also a board member of the Women's Center and Shelter of Pittsburgh and past board official with the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, Lead Pittsburgh, Children's Home of Pittsburgh, Kingsley Assoc. and Ellis School.

In October, UPMC named its Center for Quality Improvement and Innovation after Mr. Wolff, recognizing his years of work on quality care.

"He brought a fervor, passion and total lack of distraction" to the issue, Mr. Beckwith said of his friend, who was also the best man at his wedding. "It was as major of a contribution as I've ever seen."

Mr. Wolff is survived by his wife; daughter Julie Wolff Rost; son Andrew; sister Elizabeth Wolff Cote; and three grandchildren.

Friends will be received from 4 to 7 p.m. tomorrow at John A. Freyvogel Sons, 4900 Centre Ave. in Shadyside, with a memorial service at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church.

Remembrances may be made to the Women's Center and Shelter of Pittsburgh, P.O. Box 9024, Pittsburgh 15224, or to the Prostate Cancer Program, Department of Neurology Medical & Health Sciences, Forbes Tower Suite 8084, 3600 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh 15213.