Daniel Wagner

Daniel John Wagner, age 81, was called to his eternal Home by a spectacular northern lights display on October 11, 2024 after a 7 year battle with cancer.

Born in Duluth, MN to parents Robert and Vienna Wagner, Dan enjoyed being a troublemaker with his older brother Russell but survived high school despite this, graduating from Duluth Central in 1961. He went on to graduate with a BS from UMD in 1965, a Specialist Degree from UW Superior in 1971, and a Post Graduate Policy Fellow in 1989 from the U of MN.

Dan met his future wife Linda while working for the State of Minnesota as an Employment Specialist, and joked he married her because he needed someone to pay off his many parking tickets. The two were married on November 2nd, 1968 and lived in Roseville and Duluth, MN for a short time before moving to Wisconsin.

While in Wisconsin, Dan served in a number of jobs but most notable was his time spent as District Director from 1978 - 1984 for Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College (now Northwood Technical College). He and Linda raised two daughters in Fennimore and Rice Lake, and successfully resisted becoming Packers fans.

In 1984, the Wagner family moved to Roseville, MN and Dan's long career with the Minnesota State Education system began. He was an integral part of developing Minnesota's first online career office and Minnesota's Virtual University, both launching in 1994. Dan's proudest accomplishment was being a leader in establishing Minnesota's PSEO program. The Post-Secondary Enrollment Options program allows High School students to take coursework at participating colleges for free. This program has since been adopted by other states, and over 45,000 students earn college credits each year in MN through PSEO.

In 1999, Dan officially retired...only to immediately begin working again as a consultant for Minnesota State University. He continued in this capacity until 2018 when he retired for good, having been teased by his family for 19 years about "retiring."

Throughout his life, Dan enjoyed traveling with Linda and his daughters. The 4 of them visited many countries in Europe together, and even took a cruise to Cuba in 2018 along with other family members and friends! Dan and Linda also traveled extensively on their own, even visiting Russia, Argentina, and Chile. They enjoyed taking cruises together, and Dan would gather up people eating on their own so they always had a full table at mealtime.

Dan loved working on projects, especially construction projects. Throughout his years, he built a gazebo, an outdoor A-frame playhouse for his daughters, an addition to his house, an addition to his daughter and son-in-law's cabin, and worked on many Habitat for Humanity houses.

After his cancer diagnosis in 2017, Dan rediscovered his love of painting and returned to acrylic painting on canvas. He spent many days losing himself to art, and also to tending to his many beautiful gardens. The other garden he tended was being extremely active at his church, Prince of Peace in Roseville, MN. For decades, he sang in the choir, and once he retired, he also helped on maintenance projects with the "Monday Morning Crew."

Although Dan believed his legacy to be the art he leaves behind, his true legacy is what he gifted those who knew him: a terrific (but also often groan-worthy and horrible) sense of humor, an eagerness to help others, and a persistence so strong that it helped him significantly outlive an average Stage 4 cancer diagnosis.

A Celebration of Life service will be held on November 2nd, 2024 at 11:15am at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Roseville, MN. Visitation with the family will be combined with a silent auction of Dan's paintings from 9am - 11am. All of the auction proceeds will benefit the PoP Youth Group (as per dad's wishes!), and the family will match part of the proceeds to cancer research. Lunch to follow the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be given to Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity in honor of Dan's love of construction projects.