User:William J Wagener/sandbox

Nicholas Roger Wagener, born April 24th,1932, in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to Mercedese [nee DeJardine] & Nicholas J. Wagener. By 1936, his parents inherrited the house at 818 Michigan Street, where he had only 3 blocks to walk to school. He went out for sport of "tumbling" and other sports, in high School, where he graduated in 1950 from Sturgeon Bay High School, and went to Madison Wisconsin to study Medicine. His tumbling partner and love of his life, Gretna [nee Weber] Wagener studied Nursing, but she stopped in 1952 to marry Nicholas to have two daughters, Laura Ann Wagener, 1953, and Cheryl Lynn Wagener, 1955. In 1957, he graduated from Medical School in University of Wisconsin, Madison, and became a surgeon as well as General practioner. Gretna Weber, daughter of Francis J. and Mable Emery Weber, both who lived past 100 years, and kept a vegetable garden into their late 90's.   Nicholas R. Wagener had joined ROTC, ARMY while in college, and upon graduating went to Germany as a Army Doctor, from 1958 to 1962, near Manheim. In 1962, he returned to Wisconsin, but first partnered with 2 established doctors in Western Wisconsin on the Minnesota border. After less than two years and after a visit from his parents, he returned to Sturgeon Bay. His father signed co-borrower on a small house on Cherry Rd, until his medical practice flourished and he refinanced and built on to the small 2 bedroom home (previously owned by Carmody, a clothing dry cleaner), adding a large master bedroom, indoor swimming pool. barnes for horses. He then had two more children by his Wife He had a very successful medical and surgery practice. He also loved the card game of bridge [doubles], playing banjo, and guitar. and retired in the 1990's and bought a condo on the Manatee River in Ellenton, Florida where he would spend the winters. He established a winery in his retirement, and long before that in the late 1960's enjoyed brewing a home made wine, he called "Cherry Bounce". He soon discovered the amount of home brew wine you could make, and did his best not to exceed the legal limit, while practicing medicine. Nick or "Rod" as his sibling knew him kept his own garden. From 1990's until about 2004, he would work in his 10 acre parcel behind his Cherry Rd. home trimming the vineyards in the summer, but spending winters in Ellenton, Florida on the Manatee River, with a view that very much resembled the view from Big Hill Park in Sturgeon Bay where he and his brothers and older sister would go sledding in the winters. Nick like the Wageners had a tough rugged independant attitude. Once while riding his Snowmobile in winter through the ditches and snow drifts he hit a bumb as a fast speed and was thrown against a barb wire, that lacerated his own neck. In stead, of going to the Hospital to have another doctor treat and sew up his wound. He just went down to his office on 3rd ave, and sewed up his own would. Very much like his grandfather, Nicholas Z. Wagener [1878-1914 ] would have done. His Grandfather's father, Sheriff William J. Wagener, died of gangrene in 1878, caused by a gun shot wound, refusing to have his leg amputated. Bridge was a regular activity, and he was among the best, and once played in a tournament with famous Egyptian Film Star Omar Sharif. Nick or "Rod was also a Wisconsin Chess champion, billards player, and deeply committed father. children of Gretna and Dr. Nicholas R. Wagener were Laura born May 3, 1953, Cheryl born July 5, 1955, Nicholas Andrew Wagener, born June 19, 1963, and Dr. Christopher William Wagener, born Dec. 1968.   Nicholas was the eldest of 5 children born to Mercedese and Nicholas J Wagener, who also had a deft son James Wagener, 1934, Patricia Wagener b. 1941, William b. 1945, and Cynthia born 1951 all in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin.   In  April of 2017, after riding his stationery bike at his Condo, he got off, and said, "he feels like someone turned off my switch" he called sister Patricia, and brother William and friends.  He went to the hospital, which could not pinpoint a problem, spent the night for observation, and never went home.  Instead he was moved to a very nice Nursing home less than 2 miles from his Ellenton Condo. When Hurricane Irma hit Florida in 2017, he with other were moved to Sarasota, and when he returned he just faded away. On Sunday the 24th of September 2017, Dr. Nicholas R. Wagener passed out of this life, about noon.