William John Wagner

William J. Wagner passed away peacefully at home with family at his side on Friday, April 14, 2023. Bill was born in Gary, IN to Clarence and Monica (née Woefel) Wagner. He and his recently deceased wife of 60 years, Diane (née Weston), were the parents of four sons and a daughter and the proud grandparents of six grandchildren. He was raised in Detroit, MI prior to earning a B.S. and an M.S. in physics at John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH, where he met Diane. Two years later in California, while developing rocket engines for the race to the Moon, Bill was awarded a Rockwell Corporation fellowship for doctoral studies in astro-geophysics at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

After completing his Ph.D., Bill spent 38 years in the field of solar physics, beginning with seven years at a U.S. Air Force research observatory on a New Mexico mountaintop in a village called Sunspot. He soon was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a lifetime honor. In 1977, he returned to Colorado at the National Center for Atmospheric Research where he helped design and build a telescope for the Solar Maximum Mission satellite. He next joined NOAA at its new space weather center, where he obtained Department of Commerce funding to allow NOAA to begin constant X-ray telescope monitoring of activity on the Sun from its GOES weather satellites that continues today.

With their nest free of children in 1990, Bill and Diane then moved east, with Bill at NASA's Washington, DC Headquarters, next to the National Air and Space Museum, as branch chief managing NASA's solar physics research with its associated space missions and international collaborative solar investigations. He is most proud of his work as the project manager for the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite mission, which is still providing data about the sun more than 20 years later. Finally, after pursuing international space science collaborations until 2007, Bill retired to driving his convertible (required, he said, for enjoying his continued studies of the Sun) while also providing support for the LGBTQ community and civil rights causes important to family and friends. Bill and Diane delighted in living at the retirement community of Asbury Methodist Village, near Washington, DC.

Bill is survived by his five children: Paul Wagner of Washington, DC; Mary Jo Wagner and her husband Karl Bihn of Saginaw, MI; Peter Wagner and his husband Reynaldo Lobato of Palm Springs, CA; James “Joe” Wagner and his wife Lisa Wagner of Chelmsford, MA; and Steve Wagner of Bethesda, MD. He is also survived by his six grandchildren: John Bihn, Clara Bihn, Sarah Wagner, Brian Wagner, Anna Wagner, and Eliška Wagner and his siblings: James Wagner and his husband Barry Hoggard, and Judy Leahy.

A memorial service will be celebrated in the future. In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to the American Association for the Advancement of Science at - https://www.aaas.org/support.

Arrangements entrusted to Thibadeau Mortuary Service, P.A., 124 E Diamond Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, 301-495-4950, www.interfaithfunerals.com