RICHARD DAGG WADE ’42
RICHARD DAGG WADE of Virginia Beach, Va., formerly of West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and Mahwah, N.J., died March 28, 2004, at the age of 83.
In his life he consistently took pleasure in and demonstrated commitment to his family, his community, leadership, and engineering simple creative solutions.
He was born August 21, 1920, in New York City, the son of Roscoe Hawk Wade and Birdella Dagg Wade. He graduated from Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Mass., in 1938 and from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., in 1942, where he was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. During World War II Lieutenant Wade served as a meteorology officer in the U.S. Navy stationed in the Aleutian Islands after receiving aerologic training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr. Wade married Marion Francis Lansing in June of 1943. He lost her to cancer in 1976. They had seven children.
After the war he worked as a management consultant, primarily for the firm of Stevenson, Jordan, and Harrison. During these years the family moved often living in Connecticut, Maine, and upstate New York. In 1956 they settled in Mahwah, N.J. In 1959 Mr. Wade began a 26-year career with Prentice Hall, Inc., in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. He was promoted to vice president for real estate in 1977 and retained that title until his retirement.
Mr. Wade served on the Mahwah Board of Education for ten years (including a number of years as chairman) and later on as a trustee of the Mahwah Historical Society. In addition, he was active at Christ Church of Ramapo in Suffern N.J., serving as a member of the vestry, as a warden of the parish and as a Sunday School Administrator. An avid do-it-yourselfer Mr. Wade enjoyed home-improvement projects.
He married Rose Haag in 1978. They lived in Mahwah until 1985 when they retired to Mr. Wade’s long-time summer home on Cape Cod. Mr. Wade was active in the Hyannis Park Civic Association serving as its president for several years. He also pursued his interests in vegetable gardening and painting and enjoyed family visits highlighted by clam-digging expeditions and family cookouts. They moved to Virginia Beach in 2003 to be near Rose’s daughter.
He is survived by his wife, Rose Haag Wade, of Virginia Beach. He is also survived by six children: Elizabeth (Betsy) Whitehead of Cambridge, Mass.; Margaret (Peggy) Jacobs of Center Barnstead, N.H.; Marcia Wade of New York, N.Y.; Mary Jo Wade of Noti, Ore.; Marjorie Riordan of Vienna, Va.; and Robert Wade of Haddonfield, N.J.; as well as four step-children: Lynn Mintz of Haskell, N.J.; Nancy Savenko of Virginia Beach, Va.; Carol Cristman of San Diego, Calif.; and Robert Haag of San Rafael, Calif.; 23 grandchildren, and five great-grandsons. He was predeceased not only by his first wife in 1976, but also by his eldest son, Richard Lansing Wade, in 1991, and by his sister, Marjorie Partridge. Donations in his memory can be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation 120 Wall St -19th floor, N.Y., NY 10005 or Wesleyan University 318 High Street, Middletown, CT 06459.