EAST BERNE — Vernon Wagoner, a lifelong resident of East Berne, was passionate about cars, his community, and his family. He died on Friday, Feb. 24, 2017. He was 73.

Mr. Wagoner was born and grew up on his family farm in East Berne and went to Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School. It was at a square dance in the high school gym that he met Alice Upton, a student at Voorheesville’s high school. They were married in 1964.

“He drove me crazy,” said Mrs. Wagoner, of their courtship days. “All he wanted to was drive his car.”

Mr. Wagoner liked to drive his “doodlebug,”built from scratch. Mrs. Wagoner would ride with him on Sundays, and said she once looked down to see the odometer reading that they had driven 150 miles in one day.

Mr. Wagoner didn’t enjoy building only cars. In 1970, he and his wife went to a family-owned forest, cut down trees, took them to a sawmill, and began building a home — 1,000 feet from his family farm where he grew up. A two-car garage was built first, and then a basement foundation. On Memorial Day weekend, friends and family gathered to build the three-bedroom ranch house.

“It was like a barn raising,” said Mrs. Wagoner.

Mr. Wagoner continued to work on their home. At one point, he fell off the roof and broke both his feet. His wife said that, rather than put casts on, he insisted on wrapping his feet in Ace bandages, so he could take them off when he wanted — he removed them and began working on the house two weeks later. He continued working on the home his whole life, last October putting a new tin roof on the garage.

After he graduated from high school, Mr. Wagoner went to work for the pharmaceutical plant Sterling Winthrop in Rensselaer as a chemical worker and bulk chemical foreman.

“Jobs were hard to find,” said his wife. She explained that Sterling Winthrop was one of the biggest employers in the area.

He worked for Sterling Winthrop for 17 years, leaving after the company decided to move to Wheeling, West Virginia. He didn’t want to leave his hometown, said Mrs. Wagoner.

After leaving Sterling Winthrop, he opened Vern’s Garage in 1974.

“So he and his friends could work on cars,” said his wife. “But he’d fix your car, too.”

Mr. Wagoner ran this business for the rest of his life. His wife said she made the mistake once of bringing three comfortable chairs to the garage. Neighbors would come to sit and chat with Mr. Wagoner. Mrs. Wagoner joked that he never got any work done because of this.

Mr. Wagoner enjoyed racing cars as well as working on them. In his youth, he raced stock cars and a dragster at Lebanon Valley Speedway in Columbia County and Fonda Speedway in Montgomery County. He built his own cars — with the help of friends — preferring Chevrolet models, said his wife. After several wins over the years, he moved on to watching the races on Friday and Saturday nights.

He also enjoyed hunting, traveling to family land and a cabin in the mountains to hunt deer.

Because he he took the second shift at Sterling Winthrop, and later worked in town at his garage, Mr. Wagoner was in East Berne during the day to be a volunteer for the East Berne Fire Department for 49 years and the Helderberg Ambulance for 25. A driver for both, he was also the captain of the fire police.

“He was all about the community,” said Mrs. Wagoner.

His wife said he once saved a fire truck that was too close to a burning building and had stalled out. He went inside, got it running, and drove it to safety.

“He never saved a person, but a fire truck starts at $200,000,” she said.

Mr. Wagoner and his wife had one son, Neil. Mrs. Wagoner said her husband was incredibly caring for his family.

“He’d do anything for us,” she said.

She described how she and her son tricked Mr. Wagoner into taking a trip to an amusement park for three years in a row, by suggesting a camping trip in their camper without mentioning their was an amusement park nearby. The third time, he asked “What’s the end of this trail, is this an amusement park?”

“He didn’t care,” said his wife. “He wanted to make us happy.”

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Mr. Wagoner is survived by his wife, Alice (née Upton) Wagoner; his, son Neil Wagoner, of Tybee Island, Georgia; his two brothers, Earl Wagoner, Orlo Wagoner, and his wife, Shelia; and several nieces and nephews.

His brother, Olin Wagoner, and his wife, Katheryn; and his sister-in-law, Florence Olsmit, died before him.

A memorial service will be conducted on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, at 4 p.m. at Fredendall Funeral Home at 199 Main Street in Altamont. Calling hours will be from 2:30 to 4 p.m. prior to the service.

Donations may be made to the East Berne Fire Department at  25 Main St., East Berne, NY 12059; or the Westerlo Reformed Church at 564 Route 143, Westerlo, NY 12193.

— H. Rose Schneider