Mary Emma Wagner, longtime geologist, researcher, and adjunct professor at Penn, has died at 97

Mary Emma Wagner, 97, of Kennett Square, longtime geologist, published researcher, and retired adjunct professor of geology at the University of Pennsylvania, died Friday, Aug. 16, of age-associated decline at Kendal at Longwood retirement community.

Dr. Wagner was an expert on magma and the Earth’s crust, mafic dikes and ringing rocks, and the development of the Appalachian Mountains in Chester and Delaware Counties during the early Paleozoic Era millions of years ago. She earned a master’s degree in geology in 1966 and doctorate in 1972 at Bryn Mawr College, and taught geology classes at Penn from 1972 to 1993.

She did extensive field work in Pennsylvania and Delaware with students and other geologists, and shared her research in papers and chapters for the American Journal of Science, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, and other publications. She copublished a paper in 1975 about the granite, quartz, and other rocks she found in Chester and Delaware Counties, and wrote in the paper’s introduction: “The crystalline rocks of the Piedmont Province of the Middle Atlantic states have undergone a complex metamorphic and tectonic history.”

In 1991, she provided research about the “taconic collision in the Delaware-Pennsylvania Piedmont and implications for subsequent geologic history” for a field trip guidebook of the eastern United States. In 1995, she wrote about the formation of the Delaware-Pennsylvania Piedmont for the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences and said: “Interpretation of the early Paleozoic tectonic history of the Appalachian Piedmont is commonly complicated by post-Taconian deformation that has disrupted and obscured early Paleozoic structure.”

She served on the northeast regional board of directors for the Geological Society of America and was president of the Philadelphia Geological Society in the 1980s. She was a member of the American Geophysical Union, and she won research grants from the National Science Foundation and Pew Foundation.

She was a guest on radio shows to talk about the environment and local landmarks. She was good at math and skipped a grade in elementary school.

Her family said she was feisty, opinionated, and showed them how to deftly balance home and work life. “She was a role model,” said her daughter, Betsy. “She was quiet and unassuming. But she was full of life and dedicated to her friends and family.”

Mary Emma Mertz was born June 20, 1927, in Wilmington. She grew up with a group of girlfriends she called her “secret club,” and they reunited for decades to hash over old times and share new plans.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 1948 and, after having four children, returned to school at Bryn Mawr College to obtain her master’s degree and doctorate.

She met Daniel Wagner through his sister, and they married in 1949, and had sons David, Christopher, and Thomas, and daughter Elizabeth. They lived in Malvern for 40 years, and she moved to Kennett Square in 2005. Her husband died in 1997.

Dr. Wagner was a traveler, and she and her husband visited all 50 states and six of the seven continents. In 1994, they went around the world in two months. She took her sons across the country twice, and the whole family went on memorable vacations to Jamaica, England, and the Outer Banks.

She grew orchids in a greenhouse attached to her house and converted her front yard into a wildflower field. She played golf and bridge, went antiquing with friends, and researched her family genealogy deeply.

She hosted picnics and dinner parties for friends and colleagues, and supported Mount Holyoke as one of what they called their “uncommon women.” She learned to write with her left hand after a serious accident.

A friend praised her “wisdom and high standards” in an online tribute and said: “What an amazing and intelligent woman who did it without missing a beat.” Her children said in a tribute: “She loved learning, nurtured friendships, had a passion for excellence and, most of all, cherished her family.”

In addition to her children, Dr. Wagner is survived by eight grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

A celebration of her life is to be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, at the Desmond Hotel, 1 Liberty Blvd., Malvern, Pa. 19355.

Donations in her name may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Floor 17, Chicago, Ill. 60601; and Mount Holyoke College, Office of Development, Box 889, South Hadley, Mass. 01075.