Reginald Tremaine Wheeler III – 50th Reunion Essay

Reginald Tremaine Wheeler III

Date of Death: 7-Jan-1969

College: Jonathan Edwards

(This memorial was submitted by Nathan Gans.)

There was Reginald Tremaine Wheeler III, and there was Tod Wheeler. Reginald Tremaine Wheeler III was the first person in his family to go to Yale. His predecessor Wheelers had all gone to Harvard. He was nicknamed Tod, he told us, because his father was drinking hot toddies when he was born. This was part of his story. He said his parents drank too much.

Tod was featured in a documentary (To Be A Man) about our class at Yale. When we all moved from Bingham to JE sophomore year, Tod roomed with Wayne Willis and me on the first floor of entryway B. He was sincere, gracious, and charming. He knew how to dress well, make cocktails, and tell a story. Wayne turned a closet in our living room into a mirrored bar. We had parties in our room and drank red cups and green cups at Mory’s.

Tod was in Naval ROTC, mainly to please his father who had hoped he would attend the Naval Academy. Frank Aronson, who had a name for everyone, dubbed Tod “the Quarterdeck” and so greeted Tod boisterously whenever he entered the JE dining hall. Tod had a girlfriend at Conn. College and rode his motorcycle to New London to see her. However, he struggled academically during our sophomore year, left school, and took some time off. He felt shame and believed that he had let his family down.

When he returned to Yale at the beginning of our junior year, Tod was assigned to the class of 1970, and repeated sophomore year, rooming with Gotz Schreiber who had joined our class. His junior year, he went home to Buffalo for Christmas vacation and at the end of it drove to Erie, Pennsylvania, rented a motel room, and shot himself in the head. The following month we had a memorial service for him at JE.

Tod was sensitive, caring, and, in his own way, brilliant. He was a delight to be with. His life was cut short at 21 years, unnecessarily so. I have often thought how his life might have unfolded. I miss him.