Celebrating Maj. Gen. Albin Gray Wheeler (1935-2024) — a 1958 Marshall graduate who served his country through a remarkable military career and helped established Marshall’s Yeager Scholars program
By Jean Hardiman
MU 72 | FALL 2024
Maj. Gen. Albin Gray Wheeler wasn’t originally planning to go to college after graduating from Huntington East High School. It was 1953. He expected he would go work at the C&O Railway, like his father.
But he was dating a girl he didn’t want to lose, Beatrice Thomas, and she was only interested in a long-term relationship with a college-bound young man. Plus, some time that he did spend working for the railroad helped him realize he was destined for another path.
So Marshall it was, and while a student, he stayed busy. Wheeler participated in ROTC, joined Sigma Phi Epsilon, served as Student Senate president and advocated at the state capitol for Marshall College to attain university status. Beatrice attended and was active at Marshall as well, as a chemistry major and member of Alpha Chi Omega. They both graduated in 1958 and got married that year.
Afterward, Wheeler launched a career that took him and his bride around the globe. He started in business, taking a job at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, but after nine months reported to Fort Lee, Virginia, to serve the two-year obligation to the Army, to which he was committed through the ROTC program. Toward the end of that, he applied to become a regular officer in the U.S. Army and was accepted.
“He was very patriotic and felt a duty to his country,” Beatrice “Bea” Wheeler said.
His military career took him from Fort Lee to Fort Knox in Kentucky to Bangkok, Thailand, where he stayed two years with his growing family. By the time they left Thailand, they had three daughters, Patrice, Michelle and Dianne.
“He made long-term friends with his Thai counterparts,” Bea Wheeler said. “He tanned easily and they called him the ‘tall Thai.’”
The move to Southeast Asia was the biggest of more than 30 moves that the Wheeler family would make throughout his career. Wheeler himself also spent time in Saigon, working with Vietnamese high command and supporting intelligence with other countries throughout the war. He would later describe the war as a disaster that was one of the defining moments of his adult life, something that would, after the fact, highlight so many changes that were needed.
After the war, Wheeler continued climbing through the ranks and serving in locations throughout the country and the world, including Hawaii, Kansas and the Pentagon. In Hawaii, he was assigned as a special assistant to the Commander in Chief of the Pacific, Navy CINCPAC Admiral John S. McCain II. In that role, Wheeler traveled over a million miles, meeting with top officials in many countries, Bea Wheeler said.
“He slept on the floor of the plane, since he was so tall,” she said, noting that he was 6 feet, 5 inches tall. “This was during the time that McCain’s son was a POW.”
Wheeler also was stationed in Munich, Germany, where he served as military commander and oversaw the PX system in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The PX, or post exchange system, provides goods and services at military installations.
“For the family, moving around the world was interesting, meeting and knowing so many different cultures,” Bea Wheeler said.
Her husband then spent two years leading Corps Support Command for the 7th U.S. Corps in Europe, and then returned to Washington. While there, he was promoted to Major General and to president of Fort McNair’s Industrial College of the Armed Forces, where he served four years.
“He worked hard to achieve and keep his family values,” Bea Wheeler said. “He tried to be fair and honest and look after his soldiers.”
In the 1980s, Wheeler started working with Marshall University to establish the Yeager Scholars program, of which he was a founding board member and for which he helped establish the standards of excellence for students accepted into the program. The Yeager Scholars program is a rigorous academic scholars program that accepts high-achieving students and covers full tuition and other costs, while providing study abroad and other enrichment opportunities.
“While living at Fort McNair in D.C., Joe Hunnicutt visited and discussed an idea of a scholars program at our dining table,” Bea Wheeler recalled. “Albin found this as a way to give back to Marshall and worked many years to make the Yeager Scholars program succeed.
“Marshall gave him the opportunity to lead, which he carried through his career. This prepared him for working with many different people.”
Wheeler was on the Board of Directors when Martha Woodward joined the Yeager program, said Woodward, former director of the Yeager program and now vice president of the Yeager Board of Directors.
“He became an instant mentor because of his total investment in the undertaking, because he loved the students, because he knew everybody and because he was a truly savvy guy,” said Woodward, adding that he wore his full dress uniform to all Yeager program dinners, which always impressed the students.
“Into ‘Marshall Rising’ before anybody thought of the slogan, Al began promoting the school and the Yeager Scholarship in new ways, which led to new involvement from distant alums,” Woodward said.
In his career, Wheeler went on to serve as commander of the Dallas-based Army/Air Force Exchange System, a worldwide enterprise which at the time was the largest retail organization in the world, and which encompassed food, transportation, goods and services.
He retired from military service in 1993 and then was hired as executive director of an international law firm, Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin and Kahn.
Throughout his career, “he tried his best to give to his country and to Marshall,” Bea Wheeler said, adding that his family was dear to him as well. “Family values were important to him. He enjoyed the three girls and gave them sound advice.”
On June 10, 2024, Wheeler passed away at the age of 89 after a diverse and illustrious career, raising his remarkable family throughout the world, and after decades of supporting Marshall University in meaningful and impactful ways. For his stellar contributions and accomplishments, Marshall awarded Wheeler with an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters and as a Distinguished Alumnus.
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, his three daughters, three grandsons, two great grandchildren and his brother, John. A celebration of life is planned for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 28, 2024, at the Fairfax Retirement Community in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Burial at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors is planned for 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024.
Anyone wishing to celebrate Wheeler’s life through a memorial contribution may send contributions to the Society of Yeager Scholars, Marshall University Foundation, c/o Lance West, 519 John Marshall Drive, Huntington, 25703, or scan the QR code below.
He became an instant mentor because of his total investment in the undertaking, because he loved the students, beause he knew everybody and because he was a truly savvy guy.
– Martha Woodward, Vice President of the Yeager Board of Directors
Marshall gave him the opportunity to lead, which he carried through his career. This prepared him for working with many different people.
– BEATRICE WHEELER, Wife of Maj. Gen. Albin Gray Wheeler
