Willis H. Wagner, 93, of Cedar Falls, died Saturday, May 26, 2007, at the Western Home Communities of congestive heart failure. He was born September 19, 1913, in Adrian, Missouri, son of Oscar W. and Fern Morningstar Wagner. He married Hazel C. Clark on April 2, 1935, in Adrian. She died September 13,1987. Mr. Wagner attended Bradley University and received his master's degree from the University of Missouri. He taught in the Liberty, Missouri, and Kansas City, Missouri, public school systems for a short time and during World War II served as an instructor in the Navy V-12 program at Central Missouri State University and as a draftsman at North American Aviation in Kansas City, Kansas. He accepted a position as professor in the Department of Industrial Technology at Iowa State Teachers College (UNI) in 1945 and taught there for twenty-seven years. During this time he was an educational advisor for the U. S. State Department in Viet Nam from 1961 to 1963 and published many articles and books, including Modern Carpentry and Modern Woodworking. He later was honored with the title of professor emeritus at UNI. He was past president of the Iowa Industrial Technology Association and was an honorary member of the Waterloo Technical Society. He was a longtime member of the Cedar Falls Kiwanis Club.
Survivors include: a daughter, Janet Parsons of Cambridgeshire, England; a son, Bill (Inga) of West Des Moines; six grandchildren, Somer, Cheyne, Arun, and Bryce Parsons, all, of England, the United Kingdom, Brooke (Rick) Carr of Denver, Colorado, and Matt Wagner of Dallas, Texas; three great-grandchildren; and his close friend, Elnora Moon. Preceded in death by: a sister, Geraldine Cherye. Services: 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at United Church of Christ, with burial in Fairview Cemetery. Public visitation from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at Dahl-Van Hove-Schoof Funeral Home. Memorials: may be directed to the "Willis and Hazel Wagner Scholarship Endowment Fund" through the UNI Foundation, Cedar Falls. Condolences may be left at the Dahl Funeral Home website. Willis enjoyed flying his Piper Archer airplane at the Waterloo airport.
Copyright Waterloo Courier, May 28, 2007, page A6.