Peggy Talbot Wagner

Before moving to Goodwin House as an independent living resident in 2007, Ms. Wagner lived in the City of Fairfax.

Ms. Wagner began her career as an urban planner when she was in her mid-40s. She graduated from the Master’s in Public Administration program at Stony Brook University. There, she studied under Lee Koppelman and Arthur Kuntz, two of the country’s leading practitioners of community planning and development. After graduation, she worked as a planner for the Suffolk County and Long Island Regional planning departments, both headed by Mr. Koppelman.

In the early 1980s, Ms. Wagner and her husband, Charles R. (Chappie) Wagner, relocated to Stafford County, Virginia, where she assumed the role of Planning and Community Development Director. After several years, she was appointed as Director of Community Development and Planning for the City of Fairfax. While there, she led many planning efforts, including the development of the City’s comprehensive plan to guide development over the ensuing 15 years. She was very proud that five members of her staffs from her years in Stafford and Fairfax advanced to become planning directors in the public and private sectors.

Following retirement, Ms. Wagner and her husband joined the International Executive Service Corps and were posted to Vladivostok, Russia to participate in a five-month project to lead design of a new private school. They also caught the travel bug and often traveled in the United States and abroad. Until recently, Ms. Wagner pursued her interest in watercolor painting, including participation in various juried shows.

Peggy Talbot Wagner was born in Elkins, West Virginia, in 1930. She spent several years of her childhood living with her parents in Washington, D.C., before moving back to Elkins to attend Elkins High School. She then attended Davis & Elkins College, where she graduated with a B.A. in 1952. Following graduation, she married Chappie and the couple moved to New Jersey. During subsequent years, Mr. and Ms. Wagner lived in Morgantown, West Virginia, and Setauket, New York, before settling in northern Virginia in the early 1980s.

Ms. Wagner was predeceased by Chappie Wagner, her husband of 54 years.

She is survived by her sons, Eric R. Wagner of Alexandria, Christopher D. Wagner of Fairfax and Timothy C. Wagner of West River, Maryland; half-brother, Anthony V. (Chip) Rettzo II of Elkins, West Virginia; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.