Gwen Sara Wagner peacefully passed away on June 5, 2021 surrounded by her beloved husband, daughters and grandsons, after a lengthy and heroic battle with bone marrow cancer. A dedicated and loving daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, and aunt, Gwen was known for her keen intelligence, her heartfelt concern for the well-being of her family and friends, and her generous, kind nature. She will be deeply missed by all who were fortunate enough to know her.
Gwen Sukman was born on August 15, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois. She was the oldest child of Rose and Charles Sukman, and she is survived by her sister Elaine Greb and brother Irwin Mann. As the first member of her family to attend college, Gwen graduated from the University of Illinois in 1956 as a Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in English. Later that year, she married her grade school, high school, and university classmate Richard (Dick) Wagner.
Gwen briefly worked as an school teacher in Overland, Missouri before giving birth to her first daughter, Laura, in 1958. Over the next several years, she successfully juggled motherhood and working fulltime to help fund her husband’s graduate education in chemical engineering. With the completion of his studies in 1963, Gwen, Dick and Laura moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where Dick landed his first professional engineering job at Monsanto. The following year, Gwen gave birth to their second child, Pamela. After many happy years raising their children in the suburbs of St. Louis, a career change for Dick in 1978 led to the family’s move to Ventura, California.
Once settled in Ventura, Gwen served as Dick’s office manager extraordinaire for over thirty years in his engineering equipment sales business -- her administrative, organizational and customer service skills were renowned. Upon their retirement from the everyday work world, Dick and Gwen took up their next joint activity, competitive duplicate bridge at various clubs in Ventura County. Over the years, Gwen had various bridge partners and was well respected by the Bridge Community.
Gwen is survived by her husband, Dick Wagner, and her two daughters, Laura Lockwood-McCall, and Pam Biasotti, as well as her two grandsons, Kyle , Dante and son-in-laws Randy McCall and Bob Biasotti.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you send a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society or the American Cancer Society.
Friends and family are invited to a Celebration of Life at 4:00pm on Sunday, August 15, 2021 at Poinsettia Pavillion, 3451 Foothill Rd, Ventura, CA 93003.
Arrangements are under the direction of the JOSEPH P. REARDON FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICE, Ventura.