William Wagner

I’ve lived mostly overseas -- in Africa (two sons from my first marriage born there) and Europe (two more sons, now age 13 and 10, born in Austria). I haven’t been to Mt. Vernon in 40 years, but I have great memories of growing up with a diverse group of sharp people. After AB Davis I did four years of liberal arts at Wesleyan, then a miserable year at NYU Law School. Then it was three years as a Marine officer, with brief combat service in Viet Nam and the Dominican Republic. I got some decorations, but actually heard few shots fired in anger, sort of like John Kerry. (Politically, unlike Kerry, I am a registered Libertarian.) Hooked on traveling after the Marine Corps, I first took a freighter back to the East, came back home when my money ran out, and then joined the Foreign Service. After about 20 years at embassies in Africa and Europe, I retired from the State Department in 1990. Then it was back to Europe to get married a third time, to the love of my life, an Austrian named Gabriele. We had a language school and “communications consultancy” in Vienna, which we sold in 1999, to move to the States, so the boys could grow up American. They still visit Austria every summer; they’re bilingual and have dual Austrian-U.S. citizenship. In West Virginia, I taught French at a private school, and then for a few years I was the News Director at a local radio station. I truly retired last December; I’m now a “stay-at-home dad.” We live near Shepherdstown, a picturesque college town about an hour from Washington, DC and from Dulles airport. Gabriele teaches the “gifted” classes for three grades at the local middle school. When school is out, the four of us travel a lot in the States and in Europe. We love to have visitors here in the boondocks, and guarantee that you’ll experience no traffic jams or pollution, but you will see deer running in the woods outside the guest bedroom.