Nicholas Steele Wagner

Nick was born December 8, 1943 in Tarentum, PA to the late Nicholas “Nick” Alfon and Marie “Jenny” Genevieve Wagner. The oldest of three children, Nick and his siblings grew up in a rural area outside of Grand Rapids, MI where they had a small homestead raising chickens. As a boy, Nick loved to roam in the local cantaloupe fields with his beloved dog Curly, helping himself to a delicious melon now and then when no one was looking. In his teens, the family moved to Chester, VA and Nick became very active in the Boy Scouts, earning the highest rank of Eagle Scout. Nick and his high school best friend Donald enjoyed playing chess, going hunting, and cruising in the family’s Ford sedan. Nick went to college at Virginia Tech, where he earned two bachelor's degrees, one in Mathematics and one in History.

Nick met his late wife Kathleen when they were in high school together. They dated briefly, but parted ways when Nick graduated. Years later, Kathleen attended a seminar at Virginia Tech, and they reconnected. (Their first date was exploring caves, or spelunking). After graduation, they went to New York City to pursue their master's degrees. They married in 1968 in Hopewell, VA and welcomed their daughter Elizabeth “Lisa” Wagner four years later, in 1972, in Winston-Salem, NC. In 1979, the family moved to Colorado where Nick worked in engineering and computer science.

Nick’s hobbies included playing darts with his friends, canoeing on Colorado’s lakes and rivers with his friend Tom, history, and trivia (his friends called him "Nickepedia"). One of his great joys was scuba diving with his daughter Lisa, which they did in Cozumel, Maui, and Kauai. After retiring from Lucent Technologies in his fifties, Nick enjoyed volunteering as a docent at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) in the Prehistoric Journey department. Retirement also allowed Nick to travel with Kathleen to Alaska, Mexico, the Western United States, and to visit their daughter Lisa in Oregon and Florida.

After Kathleen passed away in 2018, and he had his own health challenges, Nick was cared for by his daughter Lisa, his “bulldog” who fought for his best care. Nick will be remembered for his intellect, his love of conversation with people of all ages, his irreverent sense of humor, and above all his kindness.

Nick is survived by his daughter, Elizabeth Ann Wagner of Lone Tree, his sister, Sharon Grenoble of Chester, Virginia, his brother, David of Richmond, Virginia, his brother-in-law Don Ingraham, his niece, four nephews and their families, great-niece Shannen Camp and his favorite “fav” cousin, Diane Erwin Shelton, the only one who could call him Nickie.

Nick was predeceased by his parents, his loving wife Kathleen, nieces Christina Wagner and Stephanie Wagner, his sister-in-law Christine Anderson Ingraham and his brother-in-law, Dr. Richard Grenoble.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, https://secure1.dmns.org/donations or to Donor Alliance, donoralliance.org/contribute/

Please specify that your gift is in memory of Nicholas Steele Wagner.