WAGAR, Barbara
Barbara Wagar, of Bellbrook, OH, passed away on June 23, 2021, after a serious illness. Born Barbara Joan Nartker on March 10, 1949, she was reared in West Milton, OH, and graduated from Milton-Union High School with the class of 1967. After studying art and design at the University of Dayton, she began a long successful career as an interior designer with residential and commercial clients all over the Dayton area, previously with Norman Miller and Sons and more recently with Centerville Design Associates. She prided herself not only on the quality of her work but also on the quality of the relationships she developed and maintained with clients and colleagues over many years. Much of her work still stands, unsigned, as a testament to her talent and dedication.
Barb enjoyed travel, classic film, fine food, and history, especially that of the Russian royal family and the other crowned heads of Europe; she researched and read widely in these areas and became an amateur but well-informed source of
information and interesting trivia. With her father, she had become a frequenter of auctions and estate sales at an early age and enjoyed becoming a knowledgeable connoisseur of antique and decorative items of all kinds. Barb was very proud to have sung with the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus and was a talented abstract painter. She was motivated her entire life by curiosity and fascination with the world and how it works. She took on this life as if she had a stick and just had to poke it, over and over, until it gave up its secrets. She laughed every day, and she never stopped learning.
She is survived by her husband Phil Wagar; by their daughter Emily Tirpack and her husband Kyle of Beavercreek, OH; by four precious granddaughters: Lacey and Scarlett Richmond, Jillian Tirpack, and Taylor Koepfer, also of Beavercreek; by her brother Paul R. ("Butch") Nartker of Sidney, OH, his son
Michael Nartker (Caroline Sanchez) of Vienna, VA, and grandchildren Alex and Elisabeth; and by her father Paul A. Nartker, aged 98, of Centerville, OH, and many cousins. She was preceded in death by her mother, Frances (Busse) Nartker, by her sister-in-law Judy Nartker, and by her first husband, Emily's
father, Dixon R. Folkerth.
Friends and family are invited to celebrate Barb's life by gathering at The Wellington Grille, 2450 Dayton-Xenia Rd., Beavercreek, OH 45434, from 5:00 to 7:00 the evening of
Friday, August 6, 2021. To honor Barb's life in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the ALS Association, the Wright State University School of Medicine (to which Barb donated her remains), or the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), or just find something that interests you, then—in Barb's name—take a stick and poke it gently until you find out what you want to know. Finally, the family wishes to note the outstanding compassionate and professional care Barb received at Miami Valley Hospital.
WAGAR, Barbara
