US Congressman. He was born one of five children in Cincinnati, Ohio, to William Henry Wagner and Ella Shields Wagner and he attended local public common schools and eventually graduated from the prestigious Salmon P. Chase College of Law located at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky, in 1930. He was admitted to the bar in September of 1930 and then commenced to practicing law in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was first appointed as District Counsel for the Home Owners Loan Corporation in 1933 and served in that position until 1934. He then served as the Ohio Attorney General from 1937 to 1938, and as the Sharonville City Solicitor for Sharonville, Ohio, from 1938 to 1939. He also served as a Member of the Board of Education for the Cincinnati School District in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1944 to 1947, and was the Addyston City Solicitor for Addyston, Ohio, from 1952 to 1953. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected. A Democrat, he then served Ohio's 2nd District in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1951. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1950 and for election to the United States House of Representatives in 1952 and again in 1954. After his term in the United States Congress expired on January 3, 1951, he was succeeded in office by United States Representative William Emil Hess. He lastly served as a General Counsel for a Savings and Loan Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio. He then resumed his law practice until his death from cancer on March 6, 1990, at the age of 81, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was buried in the Saint Joseph New Cemetery in that city. He was married to Stella Marie DiVirgilio with whom he had three children. She passed away on November 13, 1996, at the age of 82, and was buried with her husband.