KENNETH TIMOTHY WAGNER

(April 8, 1956 – August 12, 2025) Kenneth Timothy Wagner, 69, passed away unexpectedly in his home, on August 12, 2025, from complications due to congestive heart failure. Ken was born on April 8, 1956, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to devoted parents, Charles and Edith Wagner. The Wagners moved to Kamloops when Ken was two years old, beginning a life shaped by the sunbaked valley where the North and South Thompson Rivers meet, their muddy currents winding between the rail lines, tawny hills, and mountain roads Ken came to love. Ken grew up in the small apartment above the family's dry-cleaning business. His mother Edith's love for him was constant, visible even in her later years when she lived at Bedford Manor, where Ken visited her daily. When she died in 2016, she left behind not only her children and grandchildren, but the memory of her constant and dedicated companionship with Ken. He carried that closeness with him until the end of his own life. Ken idolized his father, Charles, whose steady kindness set a standard Ken would measure others against for the rest of his life. Charles taught him to see adventure where others saw risk. Ken inherited his father's appreciation for things well made, his taste for backcountry drives that made passengers grip the seat, and his capacity to fit in with anyone, from intellectuals to mechanics. Growing up in Kamloops, Ken shared a bedroom with his younger sister, Glenda, their lives intertwined with loyalty, love, rivalry, and resentment. They grew apart in their early adulthood, but Glenda's battle with cancer provided the impetus for their tender reconciliation. Ken was Glenda's bone marrow donor, and spent months in Calgary at her side, keeping vigil with her husband, Randy. Her death in 1998 left a lasting wound. Ken's teenage years were a blur of motion - skiing, ping pong, road trips, ditching school, and adventures that often skirted danger. He admired people who lived with a thirst for knowledge: Charles Kuralt, Norman Maclean, Lewis Thomas, aviator Gavin Wills. He sought to be "super interesting" himself, collecting stories and skills, able to hold court in a bar and approach everyone he met with confident curiosity. Adulthood brought both joys and struggles. Ken married Annette Marie Wagner (Dillman) in 1980, a marriage that lasted 25 years and held immense love, shared history, and the births of their six children, who were the loves of Ken's life. Ken wrestled with alcoholism from the time he was a young man. His friends and family knew both the warmth of his pride and the sting of his temper. Loving him meant holding both the good and the hard truths. He had a gift for making you feel chosen, and for telling a story so vividly you could see every road curve, every snowy ridge, every character he brought to life. Ken also discovered a lifelong passion for the sky. He learned to hang glide and quickly became enthralled by soaring and glider planes. He immersed himself in the gliding community, travelling across the country to meet pilots, learn from them, and trade stories. His subscription to Soaring Magazine arrived faithfully each month, and he devoured thousands of hours of gliding videos, eager to understand every nuance of flight. He could name glider ports and prime soaring locations around the world, and he loved to share this knowledge with anyone who would listen. Everywhere he went, he made friends, benefitting from - and deeply valuing - the generosity of fellow pilots who welcomed him into their hangars and their lives. In the last decades of his life, fatherhood became his anchor. No matter the distance, Ken called each of his children multiple times a week - a rhythm so steady it became the pulse of his love for them. He celebrated their achievements, listened to their frustrations, suggested books and interviews he thought they might enjoy, and reminded them, over and over, that he was proud. Ken was a lifelong diabetic, and in his later life, his health suffered many blows. He spent his final years at Bedford Manor in Kamloops. Ken's life was a weave of contradictions: adventure and risk, tenderness and volatility, loyalty and restlessness. He loved fast cars, open roads, mountains, soaring, books, ideas, and people who could teach him something new. He loved his children without condition, even if he didn't always know how to show it in the ways they needed. Those who knew him will remember the sound of his laugh which often burst into a coughing fit, the glint in his eye when a story was about to get good, the way he leaned into a curve on the road, and the phone calls that came, week after week, just to say: I'm here. I'm proud of you. I love you. He is survived by his ex-wife, Annette Wagner; by his six children, Hadley Vold, Kirstin, Michela, Charlie, Madison, and Gavin Wagner; and by his grandchildren, Eleanor and Oliver Vold. The family would like to express their gratitude to the staff of Bedford Manor for providing such a warm and friendly living environment, and to Ken's dear friends whose support and care touched and bolstered him throughout his life: Ted Kelly (and his kid brother, PJ), Mark Newman, Steve Kruse, Rod Minaker, Kim Milbers, Ian McDonald, Steve and Linda Rinder. As per his wishes, Ken will have no formal interment or funeral service. Instead, the family asks that you think of Ken in moments of beauty and awe out there on the open road.