Rapid City - Edmond Wagner, 83, passed on August 27, 2022 from COVID at Monument Health Rapid City Hospital.

Edmond Wagner was born to Simon and Elizabeth Wagner in Strasburg, North Dakota, on March 29, 1939. Ed adored his five sisters except when the girls would make noodles and forget the leavening! Ed hated those heavy buns. Ed loved school and learning and so enjoyed having the School Sisters of Notre Dame as his teachers. As a young lad, he spent many summers helping out on the uncles' family farms and learned so much about responsibility and hard work.

Ed graduated from Ellendale Teachers College. Putting that education to good use, Ed enjoyed teaching math, science, history, and photography for over 40 years; more than thirty of those years were spent in Ivanhoe, Minnesota.  Ed enriched his teaching skills by spending five summers after graduation attending the National Science Foundation summer program in Seattle, Washington.

In 1967 Ed married Karen Hayen in Cogswell, North Dakota. Always a great team, Ed and Karen built a lovely family together when they became the proud parents of Jami and Nathan. They created great memories with their family tradition of spending each June traveling to all parts of the United States in their motorhome. One of the last trips in that motorhome was touring the beautiful Black Hills. Ed used his skills as a math wizard to navigate the curves and angles of the Needles Highway to maneuver that motorhome through the tunnel there! Whew!!! Family always came first with Ed, and he was a wonderful husband and father.

Ed provided wisdom and leadership to the Ivanhoe School staff. He enjoyed serving on the Ivanhoe City Council and was Acting Mayor. Neighbors knew that Ed was a helper; he was always ready to lend a hand anywhere needed. Ivanhoe provided valued memories of time spent with friends and students.

After retirement, Ed and Karen moved to Rapid City as they joined several family members already living there. As Karen dragged him to the bridge table several times a week, Ed and Karen made a lovely group of friends. But Ed's love of teaching was hard to beat.  One day Ed announced he was going to find a job, and he did. Ed enjoyed helping out in the Learning Center at Douglas High School for a few years. Time in Rapid City was rich and full, well-spent with family and friends.

Ed is survived by his wife, Karen, of 55 years; Daughter, Jami Poeppel and her husband Rob of Rapid City; their three children, Dom (Ali) Poeppel of Cinncinnati, Ohio & Minot, North Dakota, Joe (Tasha) Poeppel of Phoenix, Arizona, and Lauren, the apple of his eye, an active seventh grader here at St. Thomas More; Son, Nathan Wagner and his wife Kellie of Ft. Myers, Florida. Ed is also survived by two sisters, Eufina Scherr of Rapid City and MaryAnn (Jim) Crawford of Moorhead, Minnesota; brothers-in-law, Claude Gross of Rapid City and Gordon Kinzler of Great Falls, Montana; and many nieces, nephews, and in-laws who will miss him deeply.

He was preceded in death by parents Simon and Elizabeth, his parents-in-law Lawrence and Mira Hayen, his sisters Elizabeth Gross of Rapid City, Marge Wagner of Rapid City, and Luella Kinzler of Great Falls, Montana.

Ed's Celebration of Life service will be held outdoors on Friday evening at 5 pm with Deacon Jim Scherr (nephew) officiating at 4250 Anderson Road, the family hobby farm that has given Ed and Karen so much joy as they visited nearly every day for the past three years. Ed loved working in his huge garden there each summer. After the service, Ed's favorite German meal will be served – Brats, German Potato Salad and of course, Kuchen!

Online condolences may be left at www.osheimschmidt.com

A memorial will be established for the Cornerstone Rescue Mission.