Obituary: Nicholas Allan Wheeler, 90, Portland

Nicholas Allan Wheeler

The Dalles, OR. October 10, 2023 - Nicholas Allan Wheeler (May 24, 1933 – October 7, 2023) had a seven-decade-long relationship with Reed College, first as a student beginning in 1951, and as a Professor of Physics between 1963 and his retirement in 2010. Born in The Dalles, Oregon, Nick showed an early interest in science. He decided at age 14 that he wanted to become a Professor of Physics. During high school, he taught himself calculus and was selected as a finalist in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search for a Wilson cloud chamber that he constructed. He traveled by train to Washington D.C., where he met President Truman and many distinguished scientists.

Nicholas Wheeler and J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist and director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II.

He was the valedictorian of The Dalles High School Class of 1951. He attended Reed on the Schenck scholarship, only available to students from The Dalles. After graduating from Reed in 1955, he did graduate work at Cornell University for a year, then at Brandeis University, where he earned a PhD in 1960 – the first awarded there in any field. He then worked as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the Theoretical Division of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, where he also studied cello at the Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve. He met his first wife, Karin, in Geneva. Nick played cello in the Portland Opera for ten years.

Nicholas was a mathematical theoretical physicist. He taught and wrote extensively about Special Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Electrodynamics, Classical Mechanics, Statistical Methods, Thermodynamics, Classical and Gauge Field Theory, and Mathematical Methods of Physics. 26 volumes of his lecture notes written out in his clear calligraphic script and can be found here: https://rdc.reed.edu/c/wheeler/home/. 

After his retirement, he served as the A.A. Knowlton Professor Emeritus of Physics at Reed, giving lectures and continuing his research. A scholarship at Reed was created in his name in 2014. Further information about Nick´s career can be found here: https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/articles/2014/prof.-nicholas-wheeler-physics.html.

Nick had many passions in addition to science. Among these were hiking, fine woodworking, classical music, and playing the stand-up bass, cello, piano, and harpsichord. He devoted over 25 years to meticulously building a harpsichord, which was completed in 2011.

Nick died on October 7, 2023, by Death with Dignity as a result of terminal bladder cancer. He was 90. He is survived by his wife Oya, his sisters Monica, Susan, and Cara, his children Tanja and Colin, his step-children Idil and Ty, his first wife Karin, and his grandchildren Wren, Talya, and Mila.

A Celebration of Life memorial will be held at a later date.