Along with having been a talented inventor and innovator, Joe was a true friend of Control Line and Free Flight. When I moved out to Western PA my Club The Skylarks of Sharon decided to hold several Fun Flies. Prior to his relocation to the deep South, he was a regular attendee! He was very helpful to all of us in attendance and either gave away or sold at most reasonable prices copies of many of his designs some of which had been kitted by Veco. Once he move away I did correspond with him by mail as he was deaf and so couldn't chat over the phone. He will be missed as a very interesting person to have been  known and friend ed.

Phil Spillman

I heard a Joe Wagner tale.
It is well known that he was stone-deaf for a lot of years. He was very good at reading lips and spoke well enough. He was fluent in several languages and he took some relish in 'listening' to someone who didn't know he was deaf. Since he could read lips it wasn't that hard to understand what someone was saying. When he replied in another language was when the fun started. I'm thinking that I heard he could answer in Portuguese.

Guy, I had a dialog with Joe Wagner several years ago regarding his "Handkerchief" design.  A small print was shown on Dave Day's web site which stimulated my interest.  Joe said that he never drew up plans for it.  The image below is also in a discussion regarding the Classic planes.  https://stunthanger.com/smf/open-forum/classics-list-where-is-it/msg590683/#msg590683