David Charles Wheeler

David Charles Wheeler III

Mar 23, 1973 - Jun 29, 2024

In loving memory of David Charles Wheeler III.

It is with great sadness that the family of David Charles Wheeler III announces his passing. He departed from this Earth on June 29th, 2024 at the age of 51. David fought a lengthy battle with brain cancer and is now at peace.

David is survived by his sister, Dawn Wheeler Toft (husband Jim Toft); mother, Darlene Wheeler; father, David Wheeler Jr. (wife Barb Wheeler); and niece, Samantha Toft.

David grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he graduated from Hempfield High School. He then began his remarkable educational journey by first completing his Bachelor of Arts in Geography at Syracuse University. Next, he went to Ohio State University, where he completed a Master of Arts in Geography, a Master of Applied Statistics and a PhD in Geography. Next, he relocated to Atlanta, Georgia to develop as a researcher and began teaching as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Emory University's School of Public Health. He was then accepted as a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute. While at NCI, David also completed a Master of Public Health in Quantitative Methods from the Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University.

In 2011, David joined the Biostatistics Department within the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University as an Assistant Professor. He was tenured as an Associate Professor in 2017 and promoted to a Full Professorship in 2023. His research mission was to improve what is known about how geographic and household environmental exposure impact on human health, especially cancer. As part of these professional pursuits, he was awarded multiple research grants from the National Cancer Institute.

David was an internationally recognized biostatistician with a focus on spatial, cancer, and environmental epidemiology. He served as the Principal Investigator on more than 15 major grants most of which were funded by the National Cancer Institute. His research demonstrated the importance of considering environmental exposures decades prior to diagnosis, identifying important historical risk patterns for cancer (clusters) utilizing environmental risk analysis and associations between neighborhood deprivation and myriad health-related outcomes. His prolific scholarly contributions include 110 peer-reviewed publications with more than 7,650 citations (to date). David also served on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

David considered mentoring and teaching to be among the most important contributions of his job. David was the advisor for seven biostatistics PhD students on topics related to spatial methods for environmental and chemical exposures and causal modeling. He also served as a dissertation committee member for 13 additional students in various doctoral programs. Additionally, as part of his commitment to the professional development of faculty, David was on the mentoring advisory boards for two faculty positions with career development awards funded by the National Institutes of Health.

David will be fondly remembered by his friends for his positivity, keen and quick wit, love for biking and IPAs, and his sweet tooth prior to his sense of taste changing courtesy of his glioblastoma; he never met a cake, cookie, muffin, pastry, or pie that he didn't like. The pastries in the display case at WPA in Forest Hill are now perched on their plates with less fear.

Always ready to tackle the next big adventure, he loved travel and chalking up impressive feats of physical endurance. Although he enjoyed a variety of activities, his primary passion became mountain biking. As an avid off-road cyclist, he excelled in multi-hour events and ended up on the podium in many of the events that he entered. A perfect day would begin with a soul-shaking cup of coffee, a freshly baked treat, followed by several hours of biking and finishing with a pint (or two) of an IPA craft beer with friends. 'DC Wheels' was a powerhouse as a rider, teammate and friend to many. His riding cohorts will greatly miss seeing the back of his jersey and may his memory be eternal on the trails.

A celebration of David's life will be held on Friday, July 26th for family, colleagues and friends at Kindred Spirit Brewery (West Creek) at 1:00 pm.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be considered to Bon Secours Community Hospice House at:

support hospice Bon Secours Hospice House (communityhospicehouse.com)