Wagar, W(alter) Warren 1932-2004
WAGAR, W(alter) Warren 1932-2004
OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born June 5, 1932, in Baltimore, MD; died November 16, 2004, in Vestal, NY. Historian, educator, and author. Wagar was a history professor whose interest in science fiction also led to books about H. G. Wells and several of his own published sci-fi stories. His undergraduate work was completed at Franklin and Marshall College in 1953, followed by a master's degree at Indiana University the next year and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1959. During the early 1960s, Wagar taught at Wellesley College, then moved in the late 1960s to the University of New Mexico. He then joined the faculty at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he was a history professor from 1970 until his 2002 retirement. Among his courses were classes that speculated on future events; these were extremely popular at Binghamton and led to his being named a Distinguished Teaching Professor by the university. As a scholar, Wagar specialized in the intellectual history of modern-day Europe, editing the book European Intellectual History since Darwin and Marx (1967) and authoring Good Tidings: The Belief in Progress from Darwin to Marcuse (1972). An expert on the literature of H. G. Wells, he served as vice president of the H. G. Well Society in 1988 and was a member of the World Future Society. Beginning in the 1980s, Wagar wrote a number of science-fiction stories that were published in genre magazines and anthologies. On the subject of Wells, he was the author of H. G. Wells and the World State (1961) and H. G. Wells: Traversing Time (2004), and editor of H. G. Wells: Journalism and Prophecy (1964; revised edition, 1966), among other titles. Many of Wagar's more recent titles were on futurism and include A Short History of the Future (1989; revised edition, 1999) and Memoirs of the Future (2001).
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Chronicle of Higher Education, December 3, 2004, p. 42.
ONLINE
H. G. Wells Society Web site,http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/ (January 27, 2005).
History Department at Binghamton University Web site,http://history.binghamton.edu/ (January 27, 2005).
Pipe Dream on the Web,http://www.bupipedream.com/ (December 3, 2004).
World Network of Religious Futurists Web site,http://www.wnrf.org/ (December 1, 2004).