KENNETH GEORGE WHEELER

Kenneth George Wheeler passed away on May 22, 2017 in New Haven, CT. The cause was cardiac arrest. He was 61. Ken was born in Seattle, Washington and, although raised in Connecticut where he attended Staples High School in Westport, he returned to the West Coast for college at the University of Washington. Between college and graduate school, he lived in Xian, China, where he taught for two years at Jiaotong Medical College. He received a Ph.D. in Chinese history from Yale University in 1998 and taught at Boston College, the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and Wesleyan and Yale Universities. He spent most of his career in the textbook publishing industry. He spent countless happy hours at his children's team sports events no matter what the season. He enjoyed following his beloved Red Sox, the Boston Bruins and the New England Patriots and he had a special passion for golf. Ken was a lover of jazz and had an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz musicians and their music. Ken's loving family will miss him very much. He was predeceased in 2007 by his father Stanton who was a law and social science professor at the Yale Law School. He is survived by his children, Gwendolyn and Owen, and their mother Haynie, all of Madison, CT, his mother, Mary Louise Reyen of San Diego, CA, his brothers Steven and Warren, his step-mother Marcia Chambers of Branford, CT, two nieces, Lauren and Emily and a nephew Jeffrey. The family will hold a memorial service in the summer in Manchester, Vermont where Kenneth spent many happy days and weeks over the course of his life.