Gordon Wagner was born in Markinch, Saskatchewan in 1914, where he grew up. Torn between disbelief in war and dislike of underground Sudbury mining in 1940, he joined the RCAF in Regina and logged time in 21 countries. Many years later he recalled his experiences in How Papa Won the War, a 1989 follow-up to his self-marketed collection of family stories and poems, From My Window, which had three printings. He settled in Courtenay after the war, retired from surveying in 1980, and took his writing course in 1985.

[BCBW 2003] "War" "Biography"