Donald Douglas Wagoner

Donald Douglas “Captain Doug” Wagoner, son of William Harold Wagoner I and Frances Wells Wagoner was born March 13, 1939, in Newton. He passed away Feb. 19, 2025, in Vallejo, Calif. Capt. Doug was a Merchant Marine officer in the Vallejo area of San Francisco Bay.

For 10 years he was an electrician on Mare Island in the San Francisco Bay area, installing new electronics systems on the Battleship USS Iowa and aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

For many years, serving in U.S. Consulate Corps in Lagos, Nigeria, Banjul, The Gambia and Christchurch, New Zealand. Doug was in charge of the maintenance for their embassies.

Returning to San Francisco Bay area he became accredited through the U.S. Coast Guard as a Merchant Marine Officer.

Doug started his business Wagoner Maritime, Inc. 40 years ago. His fleet of seven boats were used to do a variety of activities, including salvage work, towing, deliveries, nautical escort service, emergency services. Capt. Doug took people out deep sea fishing, sight seeing, search and rescue in the San Francisco Bay area with the U.S. Coast Guard, scattering ashes at sea, industrial leaders out to check on oil wells, working with U.S. Coast Guard on various projects and for 12 years worked closely with California Department of Fish and Game stocking San Francisco Bay with Salmon Fry. He did security work like deploying underwater security devices to monitor the bay floor, especially around the oil refineries.

Based in the Vallejo Marino, Capt. Doug became the “go-to” guy by everyone in the Marina.

Capt. Doug was well known for helping fellow boaters in any way he could. He was inventive and engineered and built whatever was needed. Cranes for lifting items on and off boats, a crane in his pickup for lifting heavy objects. Even buying broken 3-wheeled scooters, rebuilding them and giving to elderly people living on their boats of the Marina. Capt. Doug had many friends in the Marina and those he worked with at the California fisheries.

Capt. Doug passed away after a long battle of pulmonary fibrosis. He was preceded in death by his parents, Harold and Fran; his siblings, sister Sharonn Kay Wagoner Buckman; brother William Harold “Bill” Wagoner II; sister Leila Jill Wagoner Havorson, all having passed away from Pulmonary Fibrosis.

He is survived by his younger brother Chuck (Shirleyanne) Wagoner; daughter-in-law, Shelly (Kevin) McDonald; grandchildren, Haleigh, Heidi, Sage and Kaleb; and great-grandchildren, Loren, Irie, Julian; many nieces, nephews and cousins; and many friends at the Vallejo Marina, California Fisheries and special friends, Ruthie Lamos, Tim Hurley and Fred and Rayleen Baca.

Capt. Doug donated his body to the University of California at San Francisco, hoping they can find a cure for this terrible disease. His ashes will be scattered on San Francisco Bay by the Neptune Society.