Dr. Waggoner was born in Carson City, Michigan, and received his undergraduate and M.D. (1924) degree from the University of Michigan and Sc.D. (1930) from the University of Pennsylvania in 1930. He interned at Harper Hospital in Detroit (1924–25), followed by a year at the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases. He then spent three years at the Pennsylvania Hospital for Nervous and Mental Diseases and Child Guidance Clinics as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow.
Dr. Waggoner returned to the University of Michigan as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (1929–32) and Associate Professor of Neurology (1932–36). In 1937, he was named Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, a post he retained until 1970, when he was named Emeritus. In 1937, he also became Director of the new Neuropsychiatric Institute, which was directly affiliated with the University.
Dr. Waggoner was a key figure in drafting legislation to create the Michigan Department of Mental Health (1945) and regularly visited all the state hospitals. He won legislative support to establish a Mental Health Research Institute (1955), and that year, a child psychiatric hospital was opened to train child psychiatrists.
He was active as a consultant to the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, the Veterans Administration, the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration, and the State Department. He was a member of the American Medical Association, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, American Geriatric Society, World Medical Association, American Academy of Psychoanalysis, and American College of Psychiatrists President (1966–67), which awarded him the Bowis Award (1968).
Dr. Waggoner was elected Vice President of the American Psychiatric Association (1961) and served as President (1969-1970).