Carroll Walter Wheeler

December 4, 1917 ~ August 8, 2011

Carroll Walter Wheeler of Greeley died Monday, August 8, 2011 at Bonell Good Samaritan Center. He was born December 4, 1917 in Wauneta, Nebraska to Walter Samuel and Laura Martha (Fanning) Wheeler.

Carroll Walter Wheeler was born in a sod house on the western Nebraska plains from homesteading stock. The family would go on to survive the Great Depression, dust bowl storms, and his Navy ship would survive a Kamikaze strike in the WWII Pacific theater. He attended Emmanuel Missionary College in Colorado Springs and after the war he went to University of Iowa, University of Colorado Medical School and served as a physician in Alaska for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. After obtaining a specialty in Pediatrics at Stanford he built a practice of 25 years in Marysville California. He became something of a local “country doctor” hero near Sacramento, CA pioneering ADHD/ADD practical treatment in the 1960s-70s. Then moving to Northern Colorado he specialized in Learning Disabilities and setting up evaluation teams of psychologists, and teachers with parents. This clinical paradigm preceded the now omnipresent use of student IEPs in school districts.

Up to age 88 he was working pro-bono at Sunrise Medical Clinic in Greeley, CO and was honored with the Channel 9 '9 Who Care Award' in December 2002.

A constant reader of history and science. He also volunteered his medical expertise here in the US and abroad: physician to a mission in the Dominican Republic, also taking medical supplies to (Then Communist) Russia with his wife, Mary, through the Kiwanis Club, and with the Sunrise Community Clinic in Greeley, CO.

He is survived by his daughter, Robin Debman (Randy) of Ft. Collins; sons, Jerald “Jerry” Wheeler of Longmont, Don Wheeler (Roxanne) of Grants Pass, Oregon, Scott Wheeler (Andrea) of Grass Valley, California, Brian Wheeler of Denver, and David Wheeler (Lisa) of Loveland, Colorado; brother, Wesley Wheeler (Marjorie) of Wauneta, Nebraska; 15 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild. He is preceded in death by 5 sisters and 4 brothers.

Visitation 4-7 p.m. Friday at Stoddard Funeral Home. Funeral service 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Stoddard Funeral Home. Interment Sunset Memorial Gardens.

All are invited to a reception at the Bonell Fellowship Hall, 708 22nd St. following the committal service.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Sunrise Community Health Center in Carroll Walter Wheeler, M.D.’s name in care of Stoddard Funeral Home, 3205 W. 28th St., Greeley, CO 80634.