Virginia "Ginny" Wagener

Ginny Wagener

Resident of Mt. View

Reverend Virginia "Ginny" Wagener died peacefully, on October 27, 2010, at Stanford Hospital in California from complications of systemic vascular disease. Her family was at her side when she passed.

Ginny was born on May 12, 1943, in Washington D.C., to Dr. Harold and Elsie Carlson. She is survived by her sister, Joan Hargis, from Fairfax, Virginia, and her daughters Dawn (married to Peter Hill) and Donna (married to Eric Hill), who are all from Palo Alto, California. She was known and adored as "Oma" by her grandchildren: Brian (12), Natalie (10), Zachary (5), and Riley (3).

Ginny graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.A. in Political Science and later received a Master of Divinity from the Pacific Lutheran School of Theology in Berkeley, California. She combined her passions for politics and spiritually by dedicating herself to fighting for social justice and equality regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender.

Among the early female ordained ministers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Ginny went on to pastor churches in California and Nebraska. In 1991, she found her true calling as the Director of the South Coast Ecumenical Council in Long Beach, California. In 2004, she transformed the South Coast Ecumenical Council into the South Coast Interfaith Council ("SCIC") to fulfill her vision of joining people from all traditions to address social concerns, such as hunger and homelessness, racial and religious intolerance, underprivileged children, and domestic violence. During her tenure at the SCIC, the association grew to more than 140 congregations, including sects of the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist faiths. Throughout nearly 18 years at the SCIC, her dedication to these causes had a profound impact on the lives of many.

After being diagnosed with leukemia in 2008, Ginny retired from the SCIC. She moved to Mountain View, California where she was an everyday presence in the lives of her grandchildren. Over the last two years, she devoted herself with her usual zeal to spoiling her grandchildren with love, time, trips to New York and Disneyland, zeppelin rides, ballet lessons, sewing and ettiquite lessons, and a never-ending supply of pop-up books, lifesavers, and M&Ms. She also took particular pride in creating unique birthday cakes for all of her grandchildren's birthday parties and preserving memories through her scrapbooking.

Ginny will be remembered for her fierce commitment to human rights, her giraffe and Cruella de Vil collections, her QVC pastime, and her uncanny ability to be highly opinionated, yet equally tolerant.

All who knew her will remember her motto "Celebrate Life!"

A celebration of her life will be held on November 14, 2010, at 3:00 p.m., at First Lutheran Church of Palo Alto, which is located at 600 Homer Ave., Palo Alto CA 94301. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her honor to: The South Coast Interfaith Council, 759 Linden Ave. Long Beach, CA 90813 www.scinterfaith.org, or the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society www.leukemia-lymphoma.org.