Wheeler ready to move on

by Mark McGowan

During a post-doctoral year at Louisiana State University, Robert Wheeler applied to 100 colleges and universities for a job teaching mathematics.

Only one was north of the Mason-Dixon line. Only one called to schedule an interview. Only one offered a position.

"It was zero at noon, the wind was blowing handsomely, and I wondered what I was doing here," the interim vice provost recalls as he enters the final 75 days of his 31-year career at NIU.

Wheeler, who is also a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the former associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, eventually grew accustomed to the Midwestern climate.

He meanwhile came to love NIU, where he was one of a crop of new professors, many of whom had come through a "pipeline" from LSU. "I came at the very end of the hiring wave," he says, "to a department full of young mathematicians."

The son of a geography professor at the University of Missouri, Wheeler grew up regarding life in higher education as a good thing. Enrolling at Rice University, he chose math as his focus after a dull organic chemistry class snuffed his interest in a chemistry degree.

Because math "often is perceived as a difficult subject," Wheeler took satisfaction in the moments when he realized he was getting through to the students. He termed his teaching style as a "guided dialogue," one that allowed him to gauge if the class was with him when he paused for awkward silences after posing questions.

"Given time to reflect," he says, "someone will come up with an answer."

After seven years comfortably ensconced in his own department, Wheeler accepted a membership on the University Honors Committee and discovered "the bigger world out there." He embarked on a "pattern" of serving on committees, including as chair of the Presidential Task Force on Asian Americans, and learning more about the university.

In 1989, he took his first administrative appointment as director of graduate studies in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at a time when the Ph.D. program was getting off the ground. Wheeler directed the department's first Ph.D. dissertation and many afterward, chair William Blair says.

"He's a consummate professional in everything. He's just a truly superb teacher and a world-class mathematician," says Blair, a colleague of Wheeler's for all 31 years. "What I think is really unique with Bob is his willingness to nurture the average or struggling student. What he really has is the ability to encourage all students to struggle to gain an understanding of mathematics, and his willingness to share his love of the subject is infectious."

Content to finish his career as a professor, Wheeler returned to the classroom in 1993 and enjoyed a year's sabbatical at University of California at Berkeley, coming home to NIU with new research interests. He taught 30 different courses in the department over the years, a feat not unusual among his "really superb" colleagues.

In 1998, though, Wheeler became associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Dean Fred Kitterle's request.

"His advice to me on some pretty complex issues was always very, very thoughtful, balanced, and it always had a broader view," Kitterle says. "Bob is an incredible communicator, an empathic individual, extremely bright, and he is a prodigiously hard worker. He listens extremely well to the concerns of people, and is constructive in the feedback he gives, even when he disagrees with folks."

The passing of Vice Provost Ron Simmons in 2000 moved Wheeler to Lowden Hall.

Wheeler soon was busy coordinating the undergraduate academic program, the shared governance for teacher certification and "the court of last resort" for students and their parents who find themselves in "difficult situations."

He also realized "a highlight of my existence" in managing the USOAR program, which funds undergraduate students in pursuit of independent research and artistry projects.

"This position does make a difference. Whoever sits here has an opportunity to make many lives better," he says. "My major role is to be a negotiator, a facilitator, a moderator, and someone who makes the university run smoothly. To be part of a community that places the growth of young people at the center of what it does - and we see some extraordinary growth - it's pleasing, the kind of people we send out to the world."

Wheeler planned to retire last spring, but Provost J. Ivan Legg asked him to stay a third year.

"I asked him if he'd stay forever," Legg says. "It's going to be a real loss. He's a unique individual. You don't find people who have the depth of concern that he has, and the ability he has to carry out the mission of the university. They're rare commodities."

His student-focused approach is remarkable, Legg adds.

"We've had a real, real challenge in enrollment management. The pressure is on us to bring on many more students than we can handle, and we have to be very careful in admitting our students to ensure the courses they want," he says. "Trying to balance that pressure from the outside with what's inside takes a real work of art to get done, and Bob is very good at that."

Those challenges now fall to Earl "Gip" Seaver, chair of the Department of Communicative Disorders, who will succeed Wheeler. The two will collaborate as much as possible before June 30, when Wheeler closes the book on his NIU career.

He and his wife, Kathy, will move to the Sun City retirement community in Huntley, where they can stay relatively close to DeKalb and "delightfully" close to Chicago.

They plan to travel, bringing to life many of the maps and pictures Wheeler enjoyed on his geographer father's lap. Wheeler also is training to volunteer for the Hospice program.

"It's the right point in my life. I've thought about this for some time, and it does feel right to me," Wheeler says. "I'm not the kind of person who clings to the past. I've been here, I did what I could, and now I'm moving on."

4-14-03