Roger Allen Wahler's Obituary
Roger Allen Wahler passed away peacefully at home with his family on July 11, 2019.
Roger was born February 14, 1937 in Fort Plain, New York. He attended Fort Plain High School, and joined the Air Force in 1954 at the age of 17. During his 13 years of active service, he spent four years in Kaiserslautern, Germany as a teletype operator. In 1967, Roger started, what would turn out to be his career, proudly working as a computer technician on the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system and the AN/FSQ-7, the largest computer ever built. The AN/FSQ-7 was part of the command and control system for Cold War ground-controlled interception and controlled the NORAD response to a Soviet air attack. In 1983, he and his family moved to Lakewood, Washington, where he trained, serviced, and was an instructor for the new air defense computer, the AN/FYQ-47.
He also served 13 years in the Naval Reserves. Roger retired after 42 years of military and civil service. Roger loved it when he was asked what he did for a living—he would rattle off that he was an “Electronic Digital Data Processing Equipment Technician”!
After retiring, Roger’s car stopped at every garage sale in the city. This resulted in over 7000 sales on eBay, and a 100% positive feedback rating. We liked to call him the eBay king.
Roger is survived by the love of his life for the past 59 years, Judy. He also leaves behind his three girls, Dawn (Easter), Lori (Castro), and Darcy (Janzen), 6 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, and sister Shirley Dagner of Ballston Lake N.Y.
A private family gathering will be held later this year at the Veterans Memorial at Mountain View Cemetery in Tacoma, WA.
His life was full of love and happiness, funny jokes, silly songs, and dances. He was an amazing man and will be dearly missed by his family and friends.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Gary Sinise Foundation.
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