Valerie Wheeler

1940 - 2017

Dr. Valerie Wheeler, Professor Emerita of Anthropology at California State University - Sacramento, died on January 16, 2017, after a sudden and brief battle with leukemia. Born on July 19, 1940, Dr. Wheeler spent her early childhood on farms in Ohio and Michigan, studied briefly at Oberlin College, then graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. She earned her master's and Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology at the University of Oregon, then taught Anthropology at California State for 40 years, as well as courses in sustainable agriculture in its Environmental Studies program. She conducted research on many topics, including cross-cultural studies of warfare and particularly ethnographic studies of sustainable organic farming families in Ohio, California and France. She also shared ownership of a nearly 200-year-old family farm in Ohio that had been owned by Thomas Edison's sister and her husband; Edison himself was her great-great-uncle. Dr. Wheeler had an early and lifelong interest in photography, which she combined with her ethnographic research. In 2003 she was chosen by the Sac State Faculty Senate to present the Livingston Lecture, one of the university's highest honors; her topic was "The Art of Farming: Ethnography Enlightened by Photography." In retirement she earned an additional master's degree in photographic arts from Cal State, assisted in courses in the Art Department, and used traditional but rare platinum printing techniques to produce black-and-white art photographs of subjects from flowers to photo documentation of Sacramento's Italian men's outdoor bocce bowling community. An avid reader and intellectual, she also loved sewing, quilting and other artistic crafts. Dr. Wheeler was married to philosopher Jamil Nammour for 13 years, then for 32 years to fellow anthropologist Peter Esainko. She was the beloved and beautiful mother of two sons, filmmaker Edouard Nammour of New York (married to Nina Orville) and pianist Kymry Esainko of the San Francisco Bay area (married to Rebecca Burrington). She also leaves a sister, Hannah Wheeler Andrews and brother-in-law Pete Andrews of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; a cousin, Robert Wheeler, of Milan, Ohio; four grandchildren, Remy and Lucas Nammour and Kai and Stella Esainko; a niece, a nephew, and five great-nieces and great-nephews. Dr. Wheeler cared deeply about progressive political ideals. In lieu of flowers, contributions in her name are welcome to Doctors Without Borders. For further information, Edouard Nammour can be contacted at ednammour@gmail.com.