Conrad Hess Haagen, 100

December 26, 2017

Conrad Hess Haagen, beloved father, brother, grandfather, great grandfather and friend died on December 26, 2017 at Luther Care, Lititz, PA six days after his one hundredth birthday. Hess was born in Lancaster, on Cabbage Hill to George and Ada Mary (Hess) Haagen. He grew up on Mulberry Street. His Hess grandparents and many aunts, uncles and cousins had farms in Lancaster County. Though he was a city boy, he greatly valued the time he was able to spend “on the farm.” In his professional life Hess was a professor of psychology and a university administrator. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1940 and received his PhD in psychology from the State University of Iowa in 1943. after which He then served in a US Army Air Corp Civilian Research facility in Waco, Texas. After teaching at the University of Kansas, the University of Toronto, Canada and Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, he joined the faculty of Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT from 1954 to 1986. In retirement he and his wife, Marian Nelson Haagen returned to Lancaster, PA, his ancestral home, and divided their time between Lancaster and their tree farm in Sparta, N.C.
Hess was an avid life long learner. He loved his travel experiences in the United States and abroad. He had a deep knowledge of American history and was our family’s genealogist. He was a teacher and raconteur in all times and places. He understood all sides of an issue and could articulate the essence of any situation with a human and historical perspective. As a trumpet player and singer he made music an essential part of his life. Until age 94 he was a member of the Lititz Moravian Trombone Choir. Hess loved the outdoors, felt a deep respect for the natural world, and strove to be a worthy steward of the earth that is our common inheritance. He was a person devoted to family, to his wife, Marian, and to “the goodly heritage” which shaped him. Marian Nelson Haagen, his wife of 72 years predeceased him in 2015. He is survived by his children, Elaine, Mary Ann and Paul Haagen, their spouses David Fisher (deceased) Charles DePuy and Lucy Emerson Haagen, by his sister Betty Peckman, his grandchildren Rachael Wilde and spouse Rossiya Fajardo, Jessica Wilde, Jed Burgess and spouse Rebecca Burgess, Jonathan Haagen and spouse Kira Dubas Haagen and Christopher Haagen; his great grandchildren, Ella, Langston, Marin, Nadia and Ryan, and his extended Hess, Haagen, and Nelson families.
A memorial concert in celebration of his life will be held in the Community Room of Luther Acres in Lititz, PA at 2:00 pm on Saturday, January 27, 2018. The family will receive friends in the Luther Acres’ Chapel of the Good Shepherd from 1:00 pm. Private inurnment will be held in the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Memorial Garden. Gifts in Hess Haagen’s memory will be gratefully received by The Nature Conservancy, The Union of Concerned Scientists, or Masonic Village Hospice, One Masonic Drive, Elizabethtown, PA. 17002.