Dean Wheelock Obituary

Dean Wheelock Obituary

Dean passed away, at home in his sleep, on 1-26-22.  He lived a full life as a band leader, musician, composer, teacher, data processing executive, theologian, author, and publisher.  Born and raised in Wausaukee, Wisconsin, Dean was president and valedictorian of his class at Wausaukee High School. He received his BA in music from the Conservatory at Lawrence College in Appleton, and his MA in music from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He taught music at several high schools in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, including at his alma mater Wausaukee High School.  In the fall of 1969, Dean, with his first wife and children, moved to Pasadena, CA. During the next several years, he was a band leader at Ambassador College and the band director at Imperial Schools.  Beginning in 1974, he retrained for his second career and became a data processing executive in Pasadena, and later in Santa Barbara, CA where he and his first wife lived until her passing in 1987.  Dean took an early retirement in 1992, and returned to Northeastern Wisconsin with his second wife, Susan, where they remodeled and lived in the family cabin he helped to build in the 1960s – lovingly referred to as “Beit Shalom” where he drew his last breath, surrounded by friends and family.