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At age 99, the autobiography is used to share inspiring stories of a life well-lived

by Phil Burgess, Unabridged from the Life section of the Annapolis Capital, Sunday June 30, 2019

Celebrities, they say, are known for being known. Heroes, by contrast, are known for their deeds – for results and accomplishments and their contributions to the commonweal.

While many heroes are well known – such as aviator Charles Lindbergh or astronaut John Glenn – others are less well-known.  Those are the unsung heroes.

Last week I met a true unsung hero from the Greatest Generation.  He lives in Edgewater.  His name is Kenneth Nagler, and he met Lindbergh, worked with Glenn and celebrated his 99th birthday last week.

Nagler’s gait has been slowed by his advanced age, but not his sharp mind nor his keen wit.  And lucky for us because Nagler has been involved in leadership positions in some of the most consequential developments since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts in 1920, Nagler is the son of first-generation German immigrants. He came from a large family where everyone was supportive and congenial – “…except for ‘Crummy Uncle Bill’ who was often cheap and self-centered and sometimes bad-tempered.”

From an early age, he acquired a life-long love of animals from his father who once took him to a zoo headed by Theodor Geisel, the father of the author, Dr. Seuss. 

Nagler grew up around his father’s menagerie – including foxes, game hens, several varieties of pheasants and prize-winning homing pigeons. 

Young Nagler always had dogs, beginning with Spot, a Beagle-like rabbit hound followed by a Redbone Coonhound and an English Setter – plus cats, a pet squirrel and white rats.    

At age 13, Nagler’s father offered a choice: to get pheasants or homing pigeons.  “I chose the pigeons,” he said. 

Within a year he had nearly a dozen young birds, joined the local club and started competing in young-bird races from 80 up to 300 miles. 

“You know,” he said, “homing pigeons can fly 40-60 mph for long distances.  They have great endurance, and some have been clocked at over 90 mph.”

He continued, “In my first competitive year, 1934, we finished okay in earlier races, but we won the last and longest, a 300-mile race.” 

In the autumn of 2013 – 80 years after he started his bird-racing hobby – he was found observing the incoming birds from a Maryland fancier’s loft.

Nagler also acquired an affinity for the outdoors and a love of fishing and hunting from his father.  “My hunting successes included grouse, rabbits, a crow and goshawk.  Those birds were considered varmints then, but I have regretted shooting them ever since.” 

Still, travel and his love of walking in pristine wilderness, and especially rain forests, remained a lifelong interest of Nagler and Nan – his wife of 70 years and the mother of their three girls.  Nan passed in 2018, “the saddest day of my life,” he said.

Over the course of their life together, Nagler visited many countries and all seven continents, including Antarctica.

After graduating from high school, Nagler attended what is now called the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.  He joined the ROTC program (which still featured cavalry) and majored in mathematics.  True to form, however, he sought out highly regarded faculty to take a variety of other courses – from botany and entomology to advanced physics and creative writing.

“The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred in the middle of my senior year.  My classmates and I realized that our life would change radically and that we would somehow have to get involved in the military.”

“If that disastrous event had not occurred,” he added, “I probably would have become a dull teacher of math or English somewhere in New England.”

However, what followed in the life of Ken Nagler is anything but dull.

First, he joined the Navy.  During officers’ candidate school, he befriended a former weather observer on Admiral Richard Byrd’s expedition to Antarctica, so when the time came to choose a specialty, Nagler chose meteorology.  This led to intensive training at the University of Chicago after which he received his first assignment to the Naval Air Station in Atlanta

That was 1943, and from that time on, it was all business as Nagler spent the rest of his career, much of it in top positions, as a weather specialist.

In 1945, Nagler joined a Naval technical mission in Europe to investigate German developments in meteorology.  Nagler then focused on fallout patterns that might be expected in chemical warfare or nuclear testing.  After assignments in Utah and Nevada, Nagler developed a nuclear fallout prediction method that was used in planning and executing all subsequent nuclear tests from 1955, including those in the Marshall Island atolls of Eniwetok and Bikini in the Western Pacific.

But, as they say in the TV ads, “Wait!  That’s not all!” 

In 1947, Nagler returned to the University of Chicago, where, he says, “I got a wife and a Master’s degree.” 

In the early 1950s, as aircraft routinely operated at altitudes above 30,000 feet, Nagler and a colleague published research on the jet stream, a band of high-speed westerly air currents that encircle the globe and shape surface as well as atmospheric weather.

In 1960, NASA asked the US Weather Bureau to form a weather support group for America’s first manned-space program.  The Bureau turned to Nagler, who formed the Project Mercury Weather Support Group.

For the next 12 years, Nagler headed the teams that provided weather support to Mercury and the Gemini, Apollo and Skylab manned-space programs.

Nagler was typically among the last to brief the astronauts before their launch, often conducting a final brief while riding with the astronaut to the launch pad.  Nagler personally viewed more than 30 launches from May 1961 to December 1972. 

Testimony to personal relationships with nearly every astronaut during that period is found in personal notes and inscribed photographs that Nagler has saved over the years.

When I asked him how he would sum up his career as a meteorologist, he said, “Working at the forefront of science has been very rewarding.”

When he “retired,” Nagler didn’t head for the golf course. “I played golf a couple of times.  But I once got a par on a par-three hole.  Since that is the goal in the game, and I succeeded, I never had to play golf again.”

Instead, Nagler continued to indulge long-standing passions: animals, travel, and writing.

The Naglers had many dogs – primarily Dalmatians and Standard Poodles.   He trained and showed his dogs in obedience trials – and trained a box turtle to run an obstacle course.  “Turtle Agility” has more than 40,000 hits on Google.

“At one point,” he said, “I had more Dalmatian obedience titles than anyone else in the country.”

Once fully retired, he became an obedience judge for the American Kennel Club. “Between 1971 and 2014,” he observed, “I judged hundreds of obedience trials, mostly along the East Coast and Midwest, and four in Canada.”

Now that he is in a “slow-go” phase as far as physical activity is concerned, Nagler has amped up his writing.  He just finished his autobiography: “A Long and Happy Life: The Autobiography of Kenneth M. Nagler.”  At 174-typed pages, including many historic images, it is a splendid read. 

When I asked him, “What’s next?” Nagler quipped, “Some people have unpublished manuscripts.  I have unwritten manuscripts.  They are in my head but not yet on paper.  I work them out in bed at night.  I have eight of them.  That’s next.”

In addition to his wonderful story of his love of family, his talent for prose, and passion for science, nature and animals of all kinds – but especially dogs – Nagler is also gifted in rhyme and meter.  In fact, the Nagler’s annual Christmas letter to friends and family is always set in rhyme, as are his accounts, in poetry, of the many places he has visited around the world.

I will conclude with the verse Nagler uses to end his autobiography: “I’ve lived a long and active life / Good parents, daughters, special wife / At near one hundred, still alive / I guess I’ll aim for one-o-five.”

Godspeed, Kenneth Nagler.

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7 Comments

  1. Art Lange on July 7, 2019 at 3:30 am

    Uncle Kenny is the coolest. He is always ray of sunshine and a role model. He makes the exciting and interesting appear commonplace. When generic uncles and dads drove a boring Oldsmobile, he had a VW bus long before VW buses were cool. A true pioneer.



  2. Joannie R Clas on July 24, 2019 at 1:25 pm

    Love Ken, I’ve had the pleasure of showing to Mr Nagler over the years



  3. Audrey Hiebler on July 24, 2019 at 1:43 pm

    Haven’t talked to Ken in over a year. Glad to hear he’s still around. He’s a marvelous man, and his love of dogs is very a parent. He always has so many wonderful and humorous stories about his life and dogs to share. I’m glad I have had the privilege of knowing him.



  4. Kathy Klei on July 24, 2019 at 3:01 pm

    Ken and Nan Nagler had a distinct influence on my life, tho he might not remember me! I was
    15 and had a little mini poodle with the Hyattsville dog training club. i am 60 now, so this was in the 70’s! They had a deaf Dalmatian that was trained to hand signals. Always very encouraging, and kind..
    I remember both as the pillars of the club!
    If you read this Ken, I would like you to know that little Kathy Small has gone on to have two OTCH dogs and finished 11th at the NOC this past year! I now have Goldens and have been married 21 years and live in San Diego. I hope you realize how
    Far reaching your love for dogs and our sport was. Sending you many blessings !!!! And love



  5. Louann Tracy on July 24, 2019 at 11:33 pm

    I had the pleasure of stewarding for Mr. Nagler and then joined him for lunch. His love for life and all his accomplishments are inspirational.
    He’s a delightful man who is is quick to share is love for his wife. I have shared my favorite poem of his with many friends in the dog training world – it’s entitled “ Liquor Training”
    He also recited the poem for me! What a treat! Nice to see him recognized in this delightful article!



  6. Darin Cox on July 25, 2019 at 3:10 pm

    I worked with Mr. Nagler at Camp Jackpot, a dog training encampment near State College PA about 15 years ago. He is a delightful fellow and I wish we crossed paths more often.

    I would absolutely love to see his collections of NASA memorabilia as I`ve been a space junkie all my life.



    • And animals. In my mind there has never been a better dog trainer then Ken Nagler! I’m sure that many many trainers have been influenced by his teachings. It is a pleasure to have him in my life!lynne on September 9, 2020 at 4:39 pm

      I first met Ken Nagler at CTA in the 1960s. He was my major influence in training my dogs over all the years. We got to know He and Nan personally and what do you like for people! I will remember his van with a little Porta potty is it. He was one of a kind and he always found a way of teaching a dog with a gentlest technique possible. That was back in the day when rough training seems to be the standard. Over the years he and Alger Jones were two of my very favorite judges. We moved away in 1995 and I have texted him a couple of times and was so glad to hear he is doing so well! I remember a few years Back he trained a turtle to do agility! This is on YouTube and very impressive with Ken giving his rewards along the way! I am so happy to hear he’s doing so well and particularly to hear he has now written a book on his life. I’m going to buy it and try to reach him and let him Know What a lifetime influence he has been on me! The last time I spoke with him he was trying to finish a utility title on a poodle. His life is a life we should all try to duplicate. His kindness, his patience and his love of family And animals. In my mind there has never been a better dog trainer then Ken Nagler! I’m sure that many many trainers have been influenced by his teachings. It is a pleasure to have him in my life!



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