Houston C Wagner, 26, passed away on November 11th, 2019 after looking one last time at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Memorial Service will be held at Holy Family Church in Kirkland on Friday, December 6th 2019 at 11 am. Please come and share your memories of this great kid.

His thesis was on track and he'd planned on graduating with his Masters in Geology in May of 2020. He's pursued his love of rocks for like, forever! He was a member for 5 years (from 10 to 15) of the East KingCo Rock Club, he participated in lots of digs, and their annual fund raisers at Pickering Barn in Issaquah Washington selling rocks, running the silent auctions, and the working the games

His goal was to pursue a career in searching for market minerals, and his family and friends had all looked forward to following his pursuit of them around the world.

He also loved to read, he was always surround by books, and he usually was given them as presents at Christmas.

His thirst for knowledge was incredible, and his interests were diverse. He was really, really interested in history, he got 3 credits in AP for early European History, and the wasn't even taught at his high school! His second year at SDSM&T he hosted a 3 hour radio show on KTEQ (college station) every Saturday from noon to 3 that focused one hour on science, one hour on politics and one hour on current events. He started out with 12 page scripts, but towards the end he was able to get by with a page or two of notes. His depth of knowledge on a multitude of subjects was amazing. He was a true Renaissance man.

At Asarco during his 3 month intern, he developed a statistical analysis that would allow some of the copper ore trucks to bypass one stage of the breakdown process resulting in $120,000 in savings. Because of his speaking abilities, he was the one that gave the presentation to mine management.

While it's nice to dream of all the things that could have been or might have been, we have to content ourselves with the 26 wonderful (and yes, at times maddening) years that he was here.

God Bless you Houston, you left us too soon, and you will be sorely missed.