George William Wheeler was born to John Brooks and Alice (Chamberlin) Wheeler Jr. in Deadham, Massachusetts on December 23, 1924. He earned his BS from Union College in Schenectady, New York in 1949 and his PhD from Yale University in 1953. After graduating, he worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute for a year before returning to Yale, where he served as an Assistant Professor of Physics and a Senior Research Associate (1954-1964). He went on to work as the Division Head of the Accelerator Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory (1964-1972), as the Branch Chief of the Atomic Energy Commission's High Energy Physics Program (1972-1974), as a Professor of Physics and Dean of Natural and Social Sciences at the City University of New York (1974-1979), and as a Professor of Physics and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Temple University (1979-1983) before coming to the University of Tennessee in 1984. Here, he served as a Professor of Physics and as the Provost (responsible for both undergraduate and graduate education) under Chancellor Jack Reese until resigning and taking an extended vacation in 1989. After returning to the University, he assumed the position of Senior Advisor to the Chancellor, where he remained until retiring in 1990. George Wheeler died on March 9, 2002.