Robert Wayne Wheeler Papers, ca. 1920s, 1921-28, 1970, ca. 1971
| Oberlin College Archives
Administrative/Biographical History
Robert Wayne Wheeler was born on December 10, 1901 to Wayne Bidwell Wheeler (Oberlin College class of 1894) and Ella Belle Candy (attended Oberlin Conservatory 1894-95) in Columbus, Ohio.
Robert’s father, Wayne Bidwell Wheeler (1869-1927), was a prominent figure in the temperance movement and the Anti-Saloon League, founded in Oberlin in 1893, an outgrowth of the Oberlin Temperance Alliance founded in 1874. Wayne Wheeler graduated from Oberlin in 1894; the League became a national organization as the Anti-Saloon League of America in 1895. After graduating from Oberlin College, he became a paid organizer for the League, and pursued his LL.B. degree at Western Reserve University, conferred in 1898. With his law degree he rose in the ranks of the Anti-Saloon League and became Superintendent for the Ohio League in 1903. Commended for his persistent and persuasive temperance work, Wayne Wheeler was a major force in campaigning for the Eighteenth Amendment which was passed in 1920.
Wayne’s son Robert Wheeler graduated summa cum laude from Oberlin in 1923 with both a B.A. and A.M. in political science, followed by graduate work at Harvard Law School where he completed his law degree in 1926. He excelled at Harvard, where he was chosen an editor for the Harvard Law Review, considered one of the highest honors the law school can give. In addition, he won the Ames Moot Court Competition, the very highest honor awarded by the law school. After Harvard he practiced law in Cleveland for fifty years, first with the firm of M.B. & H.H. Johnson and its successors, McAfee, Hanning, Newcomer, Hazlett & Wheeler. In 1967, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey merged with McAfee et al., making Squire Sanders the largest law firm in Ohio, with 115 lawyers.
Robert Wheeler’s interest in books, literature and artistic pursuits led to his election in 1971 to the Rowfant Club in Cleveland, an exclusive bibliographic society for the study of rare books, founded in 1892 and continuing to this day. He continued to be involved with Oberlin College and its development. He was a member of the Alumni Board, the Scholarship Study Committee, and the Development Council before he was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1963. As a trustee Wheeler was part of the Campaign Committee for “Outlook for the Seventies,” a campaign launched in February 1970 to raise $15 million for new facilities for the college. Wheeler stepped down from the Board in 1975 and in 1976 was appointed an honorary trustee.
Robert married Grace Strickland in 1928, five years after they graduated together from Oberlin College. They did not have children and remained married until his death on February 20, 1977.
SOURCES CONSULTED
Alumni Records (RG 28), Oberlin College Archives
Wayne Bidwell Wheeler
Robert Wayne Wheeler
American National Biography, “Wheeler, Wayne Bidwell,” 1999, accessed 10/17/2019, https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1500750.
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, “Squire, Sanders and Dempsey,” accessed 10/17/2019, https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/squire-sanders-and-dempsey.
The Rowfant Club, Cleveland, Ohio (website), accessed 10/17/2019, https://www.rowfant.org/.
Author: Rachel Marcus, Anne Cuyler Salsich Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative InformationOberlin College Archives
Wayne B. Wheeler
Student file, Alumni Records (RG 28)
Treasurer’s Office Records (RG 7/1/5)
Presidential Assistant Records, William Frederick Bohn
Papers (RG 3/1)
Subject Files: Anti-Saloon League
Robert W. Wheeler
Student file, Alumni Records (RG 28)
Diploma, Harvard Law School, in College General
Records (RG 0/4)
Karl Frederick Geiser Papers (RG 30/241)
The Robert W. Wheeler Papers comprise biographical materials, correspondence, materials from Wheeler’s time at Oberlin College and Harvard Law School, and two photographs. The small collection is not divided into series. The bulk of the collection consists of legal briefs written for Harvard’s Ames Moot Court Competition from 1924 to 1926. Wheeler’s success in the competition resulted in his winning the most prestigious award bestowed upon law students at Harvard. Other materials include two photographs; miscellaneous papers from Wheeler’s tenures at Oberlin College and Harvard Law School; newspaper clippings detailing achievements; and a transcription of a speech he gave at an Oberlin alumni event in his senior year.
Biographical materials, 1922, 1926, ca. 1927, n.d. (1 folder)
In this folder, various materials furnish information on Wheeler’s family and professional life. These include an acknowledgement of appreciation for Wheeler’s parents, Wayne B. and Ella Belle Wheeler, following their deaths in 1927, from the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Washington D.C.; notification of Robert Wheeler’s passing the Ohio Bar exam in 1926; an invitation for a luncheon of congratulations; a biography of Robert Wheeler from The Rowfant Club (a bibliophilic society in Cleveland); and various clippings documenting Robert’s achievements.
Correspondence, 1921-28, 1970, n.d. (5 folders)
Within this section of the collection are letters received by Robert Wheeler from family members (1922, 1925-27), correspondence to and from Oberlin Professor Karl Geiser for Wheeler, or to Wheeler himself (1921, 1923-27), letters from Oberlin President Henry Churchill King (1925-26), and letters from Harvard University and other correspondence, both personal and professional (1924-28, 1970, n.d.).
Harvard Law School materials, 1924-26 (18 folders)
The largest part of the collection contains materials from Robert Wheeler’s time in law school. It primarily comprises legal briefs used by Robert Wheeler and his partner Harold Havighurst, and those written by them, while participating in the Harvard Law School Ames Competition. These briefs span 1924-26 and contain papers describing the content of the cases Wheeler and Havighurst were arguing. In addition, there is a manual of instructions for editorial work for the Harvard Law Review and a heavily marked article.
Oberlin Alumni talk, 1923 (1 folder)
The file holds two transcribed drafts of a speech given by Robert Wheeler at his Oberlin College commencement in 1923 to the Alumni Association banquet. He discusses the singularity of an Oberlin education and his ongoing allegiance to the college.
Photographs, ca. 1920s, 1927 (1 folder)
There are two photographs in the collection. One is a mounted portrait of John Prindle Scott, Oberlin Conservatory graduate in 1900, author and composer of songs, inscribed to Robert Wheeler’s mother, Mrs. Wayne B. Wheeler, with a message commending her “singing voice––and heart!” The message is dated April 20th, 1927. The other photograph, ca. 1920s, depicts a group of women at a Sunday dinner with a Mrs. Lawrence. The back of the photograph carries an inscription stating that the dinner was “quite a reunion.” It may be that Mrs. Lawrence was one of those who operated a boarding house for women students in Oberlin, and Grace Wheeler may have been a boarder.
INVENTORY
Box 1
Biographical Materials
Notification of Ohio Bar results, 1926
Invitation to Bar Association luncheon, 1926
Resolutions in honor of Wayne and Ella Belle Wheeler
by the Fourth Presbyterian Church,
Washington, D.C., n.d.
Biographical sketch of Robert Wheeler, The Rowfant
Club, ca. 1971
Clippings, n.d.
Correspondence
Wheeler family letters, 1922, 1925-27
Karl Geiser correspondence, 1921, 1923-27
Other letters received, 1924-28, 1970, n.d. (2f)
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law Review manual and article, 1922, 1926
Harvard Law School Ames Competition
Briefs, 1924-26 (17f)
Correspondence, clippings, 1925, ca. 1926
Oberlin College materials
Class of 1923 Alumni Luncheon talk, ca. 1923
Photographs
Portrait of John Prindle Scott with inscription to Mrs.
Wayne B. Wheeler, ca. 1927
Group photograph taken at “Sunday dinner” with Mrs.
Lawrence, ca. 1920s