FROM: John M. Butler, Head
SUBJECT: Obituary notice
DATE: May 14, 1997
Lillian Rose Wagner, 87, of Ravenwood Nursing and Rehab, died Sunday, May 4, 1997, of natural causes. Wagner, Professor Emeritus of Speech, began her career at UNI in 1950 and concluded her teaching career in May 1978 after twenty-five years of service. In 1956 she received a Citation for Leadership and Contribution to the Profession by the Iowa Communication Association at its fall convention.
Iowa born and reared, Wagner achieved a B. A. in Speech at the University of South Dakota in 1932 with minors in English, French, and Economics. Her M. A. was awarded by the University of Iowa in 1940 in the dual areas of Radio and Theatre. Her Ph. D. was awarded in 1952 by the University of Wisconsin.
For forty-five years Wagner taught at virtually every level of the educational spectrum. She spent four years in rural South Dakota and Iowa at the junior high level; three years at Marcus, Iowa; three at Kewanee, Illinois; one at the College of St. Teresa (now Avila), and two years each at the Duluth State Teachers College (now University of Minnesota at Duluth) and the Milwaukee Branch of the University of Wisconsin (now the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee).
Dr. Wagner's professional contributions were very much in evidence. During the eighteen years that she served as Director of Forensics and Debate Coach at UNI, she was the initiator of a series of forensics programs, which transformed a small activity into a university-wide and eventually regional forensics program.
She was born August 30, 1909, in Alton, Iowa, to Agnes Allen Wagner and Theodore Wagner. She had one brother and three sisters. Services will be held Friday, May 16, at 11 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 627 West Fourth, Waterloo. Funeral arrangements are made by Oppold-Hagarty Funeral Home, 234-6274.