W. Warren Wagar

W. Warren Wagar
W. Warren Wagar, writer and historian, died November 16, 2004, at the age of 72. Wagar was, from 1971 until 2002, a professor of history at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Earlier he taught history at Wellesley College and the University of New Mexico. Published between 1961 and 2004, his eighteen books include The City of Man (1963), an analysis of ideas of a world civilization in modern thought, A Short History of the Future (1989; revised editions, 1992 and 1999), a narrative account of the imagined events of the next two hundred years, and his last, H.G. Wells: Traversing Time (Wesleyan University Press, 2004), a journey through the mind and works of the greatest of the early futurists. Wagar was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1932. He attended public schools in Lancaster, Pa., where he lived with his widowed mother and his grandparents from 1939 to 1953. He was a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster in 1953, earning his master's degree at Indiana University in 1954 and his doctorate at Yale University in 1959. He published his first book, H.G. Wells and the World State, under the imprint of Yale University Press in 1961. Throughout the early part of his career, he was best known as an intellectual historian of modern Europe. In the mid-1970's, he turned much of his attention to the study of alternative world futures, publishing widely in this field down to the time of his death. In 1984, Wagar also began writing science fiction drawing on a lifelong interest in the genre. Over the years, he published nine stories in various magazines and anthologies. His writings on H.G. Wells led to his election as a Vice president of the H.G. Wells Society in 1988, the first American to be so honored. In 1986, the State University of New York recognized the success of his popular courses at Binghamton, "The History of the Future" and "World War Three," by naming him a Distinguished Teaching Professor. Wagar is survived by his wife of 51 years, Dorothy Bowers Wagar, an attorney; by four children, John A. Wagar, Berlin, Germany, Bruce A. Wagar, Hopewell Junction, New York, Steven L. Wagar, Norwalk, Connecticut, and Jennifer L. Lynx, Oakland, California; and by 13 grandchildren and step grandchildren.
A Memorial Service will be held on December 3, 2004 at 2:30 p.m. at Casadeseus Recital Hall in the Fine Arts Building at Binghamton University.