Mahlon Whitney Wagner

Mahlon Wagner, age 90, of Troutdale, Oregon (formerly Liverpool, New York) passed away at home of lung cancer on December 23rd, 2025. Mahl was born in Chaffee, New York on August 23rd, 1935. He was the son of Rafael (died 1973) and Tillie (Matilda Alicia Rakoska) Wagner (died 2005). He graduated from Akron Central School in 1953, received a BS from Bucknell University and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Rochester. In addition to teaching at the University of Massachusetts and Valparaiso University, he retired in 1996 after 30 years as a professor of psychology from the State University College at Oswego, New York.

He was an active member of Faith Lutheran Church in Cicero for more than 30 years, serving as congregation presiden tand elder. Previously he was a founding member of OUr saviour Lutheran Church in Fulton. He is currently a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Gresham, Oregon. He also helped to organize an effective Democratic Party in the Town of Oswego.

In addition to teaching at the University of the Saarland in Saarbrucken Germany in 1972, 1973-74 and 1981, Mahl also received a Fullbright Fellowship in 1989 to study and conduct research at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen Germany, where he examined cross cultural attitudes toward border areas of science. Since 1989 Mahl has been an active member of the German skeptics society (Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften--GWUP) and has given frequent guest lectures on pseudoscience, alternative medicine and quackery in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. More recently he has been an active member of the CNY Skeptics. He has also written more than 40 scientific articles for German and American professional journals dealing with human and animal senses as well as pseudoscience and the quackery found in alternative medicine. Many public school teachers took classes taught by Wagner on Violence in the Schools and how to effectively maintain classrooms where students could learn peacefully and without disruption.

He is survived by his brother, Malcolm; his wife of 34 years, Iris; and 4 children, April Lysick, Liese Hall, Kathryn Beswick, and Terry Wagner; eight grandchildren; and his former wife, Peggy. Thanks to his wife, Iris, he also enjoyed an extended family of 3 step sons, Keith, Brian, and Kevin, and an additional 7 grandchildren. To all of his grandchildren he was affectionately known as "Opa."

A memorial service in Mahlon's honor will be held at Trinity Lutheran Church in Gresham, OR on Saturday, February 7th, 2026, at 1:00pm.