The administration and history department honored Robert Wagner (SFS ’48) at a reception following the second annual Quigley Lecture on Friday night. Wagner has served 20 years as a public servant and has made considerable donations to Georgetown and other institutions. The Alumni House, on the corner of 36th and O Streets, will bear his name.
Wagner has played various roles in the public domain over the last 20 years. For the past 12 years he has served his hometown of South Pasadena and the state of California as a senior senator for the California State Legislature. Throughout his career in public service, Wagner focused on health care, housing and transportation issues for his senior constituents. Having amassed his fortune in the wine trade and as a developer of a shopping center, Wagner donated his salary as a public servant to senior citizen centers within his hometown of Pasadena and to universities across the country. He considers his service “a payback to the wonderful taxpayers who supported the GI Bill for World War II veterans, of which 700,000 benefited.”
Wagner has donated five scholarships to Georgetown, all in the name of people other than himself. “I’ve had mentorship most of my life,” he said. “These scholarships are earmarked for needy students and will hopefully allow kids that same opportunity – to be mentored by someone outside of their immediate family.” Wagner was mentored at Georgetown by Carrol Quigley, a history professor. According to Wagner, Quigley was “the finest academician this university ever had and one of the toughest professors.”
Though he is a lifelong Republican, Wagner’s immense respect for the Clintons led him to donate a $50,000 scholarship in the name of William J. Clinton (SFS ’68) and an equal amount in the name of Hillary Rodham Clinton. The same respect led him to lead the crusade against Rep. James Rogan (R-Calif.) a congressman who led the prosecution for the impeachment process.
“People can kiss but not tell,” Wagner explained. “The impeachment process could have bought six to eight million textbooks or 30 to 40 million meals.”
Wagner is similarly critical of many of his fellow politicians. “Most people who engage in politics are self serving; they have forgotten the greatness of John Carroll, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, and they are an insult to the intelligence of the American people.”
Wagner attended Georgetown as a student following his military service in WWII. He considers himself “a street-raised Jewish boy.”
“Only in America could I have come so far,” Wagner said.
