After leaving Watterson I attended Ohio State where I earned a degree in secondary social studies education. I immediately took a teaching and coaching position at Columbus East High School. In 1974 Diane, whom I had met at the residence hall dining room while at OSU, graduated with a degree in elementary education. We were ready for an adventure.
Tim & Diane Wagner family
We packed our 4 year old son, Ricky, and all of our belongings into our yellow Volkswagen fastback and a U-Haul trailer pulled by 1955 International Harvester pick-up truck and headed for Colorado. Diane and I both got teaching jobs in suburban Denver. We moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1982. A few years later another adventure called—international teaching.
We taught two years each in Peru, Thailand and Tanzania with about an eight year gap between each position. These experiences taught us much about the world and allowed us to meet and work with some amazing people. The biggest insight that I got from all of this occurred in Peru’s Valle Sagrado (Sacred Valley); it was a real “eye opener” for someone who took for granted western materialism. After being approached by yet another group of children asking for help, I turned to Diane and said that, despite their poverty, those boys actually seem much happier than the average American who has so much more.
These days we are enjoying retirement. Our home is full of reminders of our overseas adventures. A good deal of our time is spent with friends, family, our book club, and taking advantage of the many natural and cultural things to do in Boulder. Diane is training to be a volunteer naturalist while I volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL). I help educate people about the threat of climate change and how a carbon fee and dividend is a necessary first step towards turning this around.
We still like to travel—most recently to do volunteer work on a South African game reserve and to vacation in Belize, and Mexico. Our little travel trailer takes us on several camping trips in the West each season—we particularly like Utah and its many federal parks and lands. I still enjoy sports. I play tennis twice a week, and I occasionally play 9 holes of golf. I attend the University of Colorado mens’ basketball games and the Colorado Rockies baseball games when I can.
Along the way our little Ricky met a beautiful Catholic girl (I know, I should have warned him.), and they have 7 lovely children—5 boys and 2 girls. Jeremy, six years younger, took a different route—waiting until age 40 to marry last December. Though he didn’t find a Catholic girl, he tells us to expect more grandchildren in the near future.