Michael Wheeler ’67
Michael Wheeler, West Hartford, CT, died February 17, 2024.
Born in Hartford, Michael was the third of five children. He grew up in a modest home on South Road in Farmington located on the land his relatives had farmed for two generations. His mother nurtured Michael’s lifelong gentle nature, while his father, a master craftsman, set a stern example of how to live to exacting standards.
As a child, Michael loved baseball. While his inability to hit a curveball ended his playing career too early, Michael’s love of the game never waned. As a devoted coach to his son’s Little League team, Michael dutifully pitched batting practice and was a fixture in the stands as his children took to the diamond in high school. He also loved following the Red Sox.
As a student, Michael exhibited an uncanny agility with numbers. After graduating from Farmington High School in 1963, he earned a bachelor’s in mathematics at Saint Michael’s.
Michael found a fit for his talents at The Hartford Insurance Company, where he worked as an actuary for over 20 years. At the outset of his career, he earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Connecticut in 1973. As his career progressed, Michael even wrote test questions that appeared in the battery of professional certification exams all actuaries nationwide had to complete.
Although he would never say so himself, Michael was an able marksman. In his youth, he won shooting competitions, sometimes bringing home a Thanksgiving turkey as a prize. But as a young naval officer in Vietnam, his sharpshooting had a much more serious application. Michael served as the gunnery officer aboard the U.S.S. Westchester County, a flat-bottomed sea-going tank landing ship that could operate in Vietnam’s rivers. On November 1, 1968, he fought through the deadliest attack suffered by the U.S. Navy during the war, when Vietnamese frogmen placed mines below his ship’s waterline that exploded, ripping through the hull, killing 25 men onboard. Michael revered the U.S. Navy, cherished his service at sea, and honored all those who have served in the military.
After his honorable discharge in 1970, Michael returned to the Hartford area, where he met his wife, a nurse from Ireland, settling in the area to raise their two children in a house they occupied for nearly 50 years.
Michael enjoyed the suburban life — family, work, school, church, summer weekends at the beach house at Old Lyme Shores with his brothers and sisters, and the kids’ sports and activities. To unwind from it all, he picked at the banjo and savored his long walks and bike rides through West Hartford. But without complaint, he paid the heavy dues familiar to every dedicated hockey parent – countless hours driving through winter weather to games, and countless more standing frozen in frigid ice rinks, offering his kids his warm, heartfelt support no matter the outcome of the contest.
Most summers, Michael brought his family to Killorglin in County Kerry, Ireland, to visit his wife’s parents and siblings and their children. He embraced the charms of Irish country life and won the hearts of the extended Ahern clan with his easy manner, “Yank” humor, and endless curiosity about Irish history and culture. He dreamed of building a house outside Killorglin. From the first appearance of the Internet at his Arundel Avenue home until his death, Michael was a voracious consumer of Irish news, making him as credible a commentator on Irish affairs as could be found on this side of the Atlantic.
When his wife died in 2009 — with a son married and posted overseas — Michael and his daughter traveled the length of New England, attending football games, hiking, picnicking, or just simply seeing the sights. They also traveled overseas to Ireland to attend family weddings or to wherever his son was posted at the time, including to Egypt for a thrilling trip up the Nile River and back into the age of the Pharaohs. As his health declined in recent years, Michael demonstrated his deep faith, perseverance and grace.
He was a Founders Club supporter of the College. In remembrance of Michael’s life, the family asks that any charitable donations be made to Saint Michael’s College.
Michael’s wife of 36 years, Bridget “Bridie” Ahern Wheeler, predeceased him in 2009. He is survived by a son, a daughter, two brothers, two sisters and extended family.