NFA renamed in honor of former SDSU president and late wife
South Dakota State University, during an on-campus dedication ceremony today, officially recognized the renaming of its Nursing, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Arts and Sciences building in honor of former president Robert T. Wagner and his late wife, Mary K. Wagner.
The Robert T. and Mary K. Wagner Hall designation pays tribute to the Wagners for their years of service to the university and the state of South Dakota. The South Dakota Board of Regents approved the name during its meeting in early April.
Current President David Chicoine noted in his comments the Wagners’ long affiliation with the university and with education in South Dakota.
“The Wagners are remembered with great admiration by alumni, faculty and staff across many fields,” Chicoine said. “It is fitting that their name will be connected to a building that houses and supports many academic disciplines.”
After earning his Ph.D. in sociology from SDSU in 1972, Robert Wagner served as a faculty member and administrator before his appointment as 17th president of the university in 1985. At that time he was only the second SDSU president to have earned a degree from State. He retired as president in 1997. Mary Wagner also held a faculty position in the sociology department and served in the South Dakota Legislature for 12 years prior to her death in 2004.
Wagner Hall, built in 1968 as Home Economics-Nursing, later was named NFA to acknowledge the colleges of Nursing, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Arts and Sciences. The structure includes classrooms, laboratories and offices for several academic disciplines, such as nursing, apparel merchandising and interior design, and nutrition, food science and hospitality. Jake Krull, a 1960 alumnus and chair of the SDSU Foundation Board of Governors, led the effort to establish Wagner Hall through the university’s Naming Committee.
“The Wagners were difference-makers on this campus and in our state,” Krull said. “Their leadership during the university’s first comprehensive campaign helped lay the groundwork for the current campaign, and we are so pleased to have Robert and Mary honored in this manner.”
During his tenure as president, Robert Wagner was instrumental in launching SDSU’s first capital campaign, “Visions for the Future,” setting the stage for the current capital campaign, It Starts with STATE: A Campaign for South Dakota State University, with a working goal of $190 million to support the academic mission of the university, scholarship endowment and facility enhancements.
A Sioux Falls native, Robert Wagner graduated from Washington High School before earning a degree in philosophy from Augustana College in 1954. Robert Wagner and Mary Wagner, a native of Howard, married that same year before moving to Evanston, Ill., where he was a student at the Seabury Western Theological Seminary. The couple eventually moved back to South Dakota where Robert Wagner earned his Ph.D. at SDSU, and Mary Wagner a master’s degree is social sciences in 1974 and a Ph.D. in sociology in 1978. She earned her bachelor’s degree in government from the University of South Dakota in 1954, and was later honored as a distinguished alumna of both SDSU and USD.
Mary Wagner began public service in 1975 when she successfully ran for the Brookings Board of Education, serving in that capacity until 1980. She was later elected to four terms in the South Dakota House of Representatives and two terms in the South Dakota Senate. Mary Wagner served on numerous boards and committees throughout her career and was the recipient of many awards, including being named the Outstanding Woman of the Year in 1981 by the Brookings Business and Professional Women. She joined the SDSU faculty in 1990, becoming a full-time professor in 1992 when she decided to no longer run for state office. Mary Wagner retired from SDSU in 1996.
Prior to his presidency, Robert Wagner earned legendary status as a professor at SDSU by teaching the Marriage 250 class. The class enrolled almost 1,200 students a year in three sections, filling every seat in Rotunda D – the largest classroom on campus. Robert Wagner then spent two years as an assistant to the vice president for academic affairs and a year of service as a vice president at then-Dakota State College in Madison before his appointment as president of SDSU in 1985.
Wagner Hall is the sixth on-campus building to recognize a former university president of SDSU, joining the Pugsley Continuing Education Center (Charles Pugsley, 1923-40); Brown Hall (George Lincoln Brown, 1940); Briggs Library (Hilton Briggs, 1958-75), and Berg Hall (Sherwood Berg, 1975-84). Crothers Engineering Hall was named after H.M. Crothers, a former dean who served as acting president at SDSU on three occasions (1948-49, 1951-52, 1957-58).