Vern Wagner

Vern Wagner, who spent seven years at Orange Coast College as a

wrestling coach before moving on to UCI, San Jose State, the University

of Washington and the Seattle Kingdome, died July 27 at Virginia Mason

Hospital in Seattle as a result of leukemia. He was 63.

A wrestling coach at Fountain Valley High since 1966, he came to Orange Coast in 1974.

He joined the UCI coaching staff in 1981 as an associate athletic

director, moved on to become the athletic director at San Jose State

three years later, and three years later left for Washington, where he

was an assistant athletic director for seven years.

From 1994 to the present he was the Director of the Kingdome in

Seattle.

His surviving family includes wife Mary Ellen, son Michael Wagner,

three grandchildren in Highland, Ca. and daughter Kristin Zemke of

Glendale, Ariz.

A scholarship fund is anticipated in lieu of flowers, and a gathering

is scheduled for Monday at his home in Bothell, Wash.