William Andrews
Wheeler was born on 18 July 1920 at East St. Louis, IL.
1 He was the son of
Lloyd Anthony Wheeler D.V.M. and
Ida Mae Lofland. William Andrews Wheeler died on 22 July 1991 at Conyers, Rockdale Co., GA, at age 71.
2 He was buried on 25 July 1991 at Arlington Cemetery, Atlanta (Sandy Springs), Fulton Co., GA.
William Andrews Wheeler began military service immediately after Pearl Harbor. He became a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne and was severely wounded at Normandy. He single-handedly completed all unit objectives before falling three days after the D-Day invasion. He spent fourteen months in military hospitals before his discharge in August 1945. His military ID was 12039069. All records were lost in a fire in the National Personnel Records Cemter in St. Louis, MO on July 12, 1973. His Discharge Papers are in DJW file.
3 He was educated; at Hudson River State Hospital; Richmond College, SUNY, Staten Island, NY; Jersey City State College from which he received his R.N., B.S. and M.S. degrees, respectively. Bill worked as an attendant at HRSH for many years before and after WW II. In 1958, he resumed his education and became a health care professional, a long suppressed goal.
At the age of 12, he had run away from the Masonic Orphanage in Utica, NY without completing the 8th grade in school. He worked wherever he could -- as a shandy gaff on the railroad, a cook in small-town taverns, a farm laborer, a New York City parking lot attendant (where he learned to drive!), even as a singer in bars and taverns.
His true calling was in the medical field, however, and his years as an attendant in a mental institution and later as a nurse for the profoundly retarded were rewarding, despite the frustrations he endured everyday. As a high level manager in these fields, he encountered, and dealt with, numerous cases of neglect and abuse. He would not tolerate inadequate care and inattention to patients and was rewarded by the devotion of good employees and patients alike. At the same time, he had enemies among former employees he had discharged for incompetence or cruelty. Two incidents illustrate the extent of this enmity.
While he worked in his office one day, an undertaker appeared to pick up a body; it was his! This unnerving experience was followed by an incident in which Bill was physically attacked by a former worker. He successfully fought him off, but the fight left him weakened and sore. His lack of control over patient care due to upper management's lack of support caused him to suffer increasing depression which eventually led to a nervous breakdown. This in turn led to my accepting a job transfer to another state, largely in an effort to remove him from an untenable situation.
This move resulted in quite a new life for all of us. Bill worked as a nurse and a director of nursing, but was hampered by the inevitable influence of age on his very significant wartime injuries from which he never fully recovered. He had accomplished far more than anyone could have expected when he left the hospital in 1945 after 14 months in a full body cast. He was an extraordinary human being who had suffered enormously, both physically and psychologically, yet was always ready to set aside his own misery to help others. His Mayflower ancestors include George Soule, William Bradford and Stephen Hopkins.( Adria's membership in the Mayflower Society is based on William Bradford.) His notable relatives include Philip Shearman, first secretary of Rhode Island, Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, General William Tecumseh Sherman of Civil War fame, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His Revolutionary War ancestors include Jonathan and Squire Hascall and Jonathan Shepard.