Jonathan William "Jack" Wagner

Jonathan William "Jack" Wagner, 85, of Waukesha, teed off at a golf course in heaven on November 4, 2026. He passed on the way he lived his life: surrounded by loved ones.

Jack was born August 12, 1941, in Wild Rose, Wisconsin, to Rev. John and Janet Wagner. As the son of a Methodist minister, he moved often while growing up, living in Markesan, Lake Mills, Fond du Lac and Oconto. He graduated from Goodrich High School in Fond du Lac in 1959, went on to UW-Oshkosh, and transferred to UW-Madison, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1963.

On a 1968 business trip to Houston, Jack was enamored with a Delta flight attendant. She gave him her phone number, and it turned out to be the best trip he ever took. Jack and Micki were married on December 5, 1970, and settled in Waukesha. They spent their early years together traveling internationally; favorite trips included Spain, Australia, St. Petersburg (Russia) and the Canary Islands. On their honeymoon in Spain, Jack, an early adopter of running for fitness, went out for a jog, and the police stopped him to ask, with concern, who he was running from.

Closer to home, his happy place was central Wisconsin at the family lake houses: first on Long Lake in Waushara County, later on Lake Arrowhead near Nekoosa.

Jack began his career in marketing and advertising at the American Lung Association of Wisconsin. He went on to manage advertising in-house at Durant, a manufacturing company, then moved to the agency side, holding account and leadership roles at Hoffman York, a Milwaukee-based advertising agency, before running the Milwaukee office of global agency Bozell & Jacobs.

When Bozell closed its Milwaukee office in the late 1980s, Jack started his own management consulting firm, Wagner Associates, serving family-owned manufacturing and retail businesses throughout Wisconsin. At the same time, he went back to school, earning his MBA in 1990 from Cardinal Stritch College, where he later taught evening master’s-level business classes.

In the mid-1990s he joined TEC (The Executive Committee, now Vistage), and soon after, Executive Agenda (EA). Through both, he led peer groups and provided consulting and coaching to executives. Jack retired in 2021 after a career guided by the principle he instilled in his daughters: anything worth doing is worth doing right.

In addition to a busy career, Jack was active in two Episcopal parishes, St. Philip’s in Waukesha and St. Mary’s in Dousman. He enjoyed the sense of community as much as he enjoyed putting his professional experience to work, serving on committees and in a number of parish leadership roles.

Jack had a sharp mind, a keen business sense and a love for making people laugh. His specialty was the perfectly timed pun, which earned him as many eye rolls as laughs, and he’d happily take either. That humor, paired with a genuine warmth, drew people to him wherever he went, from those small towns to the office to the church pew. One of his greatest gifts was keeping so many of those friendships for decades.

Among his most faithful friendships was the one with Bucky Badger. Jack held UW football season tickets from the year he graduated, 1963, and never gave them up. In 2017, UW Athletics recognized Jack and Micki among its 100 longest-standing season ticket holders. Few things made him happier than an autumn Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium. When daughters Amy and Renee became Badgers themselves, any business meeting in the Madison area was a perfect excuse to take his girls out to dinner. A true Wisconsin guy, he also cheered on the Packers, Brewers and Bucks.

If anything rivaled a Saturday at Camp Randall, it was a day on the golf course. A scratch golfer who lettered in the sport at UW-Oshkosh, Jack was always up for hitting a bucket of balls or playing a round with friends and family.

Jack is survived by his wife of nearly 56 years, Micki; his daughters, Amy (Sean Rierdon) and Renee (Theodore Nims); his granddaughters, Stella and Camille Avery; and many nieces, nephews and dear friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, Rev. John and Janet Wagner, and his sister, Jill Hull.

The family is forever grateful to Jack’s companion and aide, Mary Dischler, whose kindness and compassion carried him through the last three years of his journey with Lewy body dementia.

Visitation will be held on Sunday, December 13, at 1 p.m. at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Dousman, followed by a service at 1:30 p.m. Afterward, the family will host an open house-style celebration of life at Delafield Brewhaus from 3 to 5 p.m. RSVPs for the Delafield Brewhaus gathering are preferred by December 5 but not required: https://forms.gle/YjnDUwQhyMBCAgLf9

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Mary’s Episcopal Church (Dousman) or the American Lung Association of Wisconsin.

Gifts to St. Mary’s Episcopal Church may be made online.

Gifts to the American Lung Association of Wisconsin may be mailed to the address below. When giving by check, please write “In memory of Jonathan (Jack) Wagner” in the memo line.

American Lung Association of Wisconsin

Attn: Sarah Anderson
13100 W. Lisbon Rd. Suite 140Brookfield, WI 53005