William Waganfeald

1940 - 2022

By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

TEMPERANCE - William Waganfeald, a former state of Ohio truck driving champion whose livelihood required him to transport freight safely on a variety of thoroughfares, from highways to narrow city streets, died Sunday in his Temperance home. He was 81.

He had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes, but his death was unexpected, his son, Scott Waganfeald, said.

Mr. Waganfeald - many knew him as "Wheels" - drove tractor-trailer rigs for more than 30 years, mostly for the former Consolidated Freightways from which he retired. He hauled general merchandise - T-shirts one day; maybe food the next - across a territory that included Napoleon, Bowling Green, downtown Toledo, West Toledo, Sylvania, and parts of Fulton County.

"He was well-liked, and he was very considerate of everybody," said Larry Baker, a Consolidated truck driver and a friend.

Mr. Waganfeald aimed to defy stereotypes of his profession, through the way he dressed and in his safe driving record.

"He liked to do his job well. He took pride in being a truck driver," his son said. "He was always clean, professional."

Another Consolidated driver, Henry Fleischmann, brought home dozens of trophies through years of competition in "roadeos" sponsored by the Ohio Trucking Association and the American Trucking Association to promote truck safety.

Inspired by that example, Mr. Waganfeald started to compete at the state and national level. He held the 1991 title of champion three-axle truck driver for the state of Ohio. That win propelled him to the overall championship competition in Minneapolis, where what he deemed tough competition kept him out of the running for a national title.

"They really impressed me. A sharper bunch of people I've never met," Mr. Waganfeald told The Blade in 1991.

The class in which he competed used 28-foot trailers. But acing the events involved more than navigating an obstacle course. Driver-competitors went through a personal interview and a one-hour written safety test. They had seven minutes to find the safety defects added to a truck.

"They'll loosen lug nuts," he said then. "They'll disconnect some linkage like in the brakes, they'll disconnect some tail lights, make a fluid leak, they'll let air out of one or two tires..."

On the driving course, the object was to drive as close as possible to barrels and cones without hitting them.

"It's just regular things you do on your everyday job," Mr. Waganfeald. "It's really tough. You have to really be on the money."

He'd been a union steward of Teamsters Local 20 and attended retirees' meetings regularly.

He was born Oct. 19, 1940, on Segur Avenue in South Toledo to Sylvia and Wilben Waganfeald, the middle child of what would be five. He went to the grade school of Immaculate Conception Parish, which was widely known as "Darby." He was a 1958 graduate of Macomber Vocational High School, where he focused on aeronautics and automotive studies.

"He was a whiz with cars, any kind of engine," his son said. He later received a pilot's license and flew his plane from the former Wagon Wheel Airport in Lambertville.

Mr. Waganfeald enjoyed spending summers at the family cottage at Lake Nettie in northeast Lower Michigan, where he kept motorcycles and four-wheelers and boats and personal watercraft to the delight of his children and grandchildren.

"He almost had the motto of 'the man with the most toys wins,'" his son said.

Mr. Waganfeald made friends and kept friends readily, from grade school to those he met at the McDonald's locations he frequented. He and Bill O'Connell were close from first grade until Mr. O'Connell's death a decade ago - called "Little Bill and Big Bill" by those who saw them walk together to Macomber.

Mr. O'Connell grew to 6-feet, 2-inches, and Mr. Waganfeald would say he took three steps for Mr. O'Connell's two, recalled Georgi O'Connell, Mr. O'Connell's widow.

"They were just good friends. In your lifetime, how many do you have that are that close?" Mrs. O'Connell said. "He always made a joke or a kind remark. He made you feel like you were an important person."

He and the former Elaine Leslie married Oct. 28, 1960. They remained the best of friends, though divorced, and vacationed together - including to national truck driving competitions, their son, Scott, said. She died on April 28, 2004.

Surviving are his son, Scott Waganfeald; daughters Amy Nanney, Sandy Waganfeald, Pam Guy, and Susan Eidenier; sister, Barbara Kunkel, and 11 grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 3:30-7 p.m. Friday at the Michael W. Pawlak Funeral Home, Temperance, where funeral services will begin at 7 p.m. Friday.