Wheeler was one of the best and kindest people I have ever met. He was generous with his time and his resources while I was working on my thesis. When research funds ran out, he worked doggedly to locate alternative sources, eventually landing support from PG&E to fund the research project that let me do my dissertation.

Dr. North also helped to build part of the apparatus for some of my thesis experiment, working the machinery in the shop at Kerckhoff Marine Lab himself. He would donate part of his consulting salary to his general research account so that he could buy equipment and materials to sustain the research projects.

Dr. North purchased a laser printer with his consulting funds and then brought it to the lab at Kerckhoff so that I could run off high progress reports (and, ultimately, my PhD dissertation)

Dr. North was generous with credit for publication. In 1987, I worked with Dr. North on a side project involving electron microscopy of juvenile life stages of Cystoseira osmundacea. We were curious to see if laboratory hydrazine exposure (an occasional trace chemical component of the Diablo Canyon discharge) lead to morphological abnormalities in Cystoseira. It did so and we prepared an article for publication. I did the microscopy work and Wheeler wrote the text. Wheeler, in typical generous fashion, wanted to list me as primary author on the paper, as I was about to graduate and he felt I needed as many publications as possible. I thought he should be primary author, as he had proposed the experimental design and written the text. We went back and forth for a while, each trying to "give" the authorship to the other. As many of you may know, this backwards from the way that disputes over credit for publication may typically occur, but is typical of Wheeler's generous and supportive nature.

In 1985, I went to the central California with Wheeler on one of his quarterly environmental monitoring jobs to examine the effects of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power station on the intertidal and subtidal communities of Diablo Cove and environs in central California. The work is arduous, as it is scheduled to catch the early morning low tides. Five to six hours of enumeration work on fixed transects in the intertidal are followed by a two hour break and then five to six hours of diving in Diablo Cove. The work schedule repeats this way for three to four days. My job was to accompany Dr. North in the subtidal, as two divers were required. PG&E usually hires divers to accompany Wheeler, and after my one scheduled day of support (which wore me out), the PG&E diver appeared, a strapping, handsome young blond man, about 20 years old, who on meeting Professor North, was clearly awestruck on being in his presence. "Oh, Professor North! (bow, scrape, bow) so pleased to meet you! As you all well know, Wheeler was not the most imposing physical specimen but boy did he have incredible endurance, despite his many medical maladies. The poor kid didn't know what he was in for. I heard later that Wheeler wore him out in one day of diving and that PG&E had to hire a different new diver each day to keep up with him.

Dr. North was famous for his old cars. I heard a story from a PG&E Vice President that, for a while in the 1970's, it was thought that the California's portion of the then-energy crisis came down to the quarterly monitoring by Professor North of the environmental impacts of the Diablo Canyon power plant (which was then under construction, and later idle until an operating license was granted). Dr. North always drove his 1959 Dodge Dart, packed with gear and equipment from southern to central California to do the monitoring. So, the California energy crisis actually depended on whether or not Dr. North's 1959 Dodge Dart would start! I heard that this situation so disturbed PG&E that they offered to send a plane to southern California to pickup Wheeler and fly him and his gear to central California to do the monitoring.

An afternote about the Dart. It was still running in the mid-1980's. Wheeler and I took it to Diablo Cove in 1986 to do some monitoring and set some experiments in place! It got us there and back just fine. The trunk was so full of Wheeler's usual accumulations that we filled the back seat with the dive gear and sample boxes.

In November, 1988, when copies of my dissertation were due to my committee, my own car broke down, and I was stuck, 55 miles from Caltech and no way to deliver the thesis. Wheeler, generously loaned the Dart to me and gave me some check out instructions first about its quirks, which were many. The transmission buttons were missing, so you selected gears with a screw driver, and the "park" position was not operative, so you had to set the emergency break first before going into park or you could roll forward and "bang!" hit the parked car in front of you. Well, I didn't get it right the first time, and the Dart did roll forward and "bang!" hit the car in front, right with Wheeler standing there. He didn't seem to mind, and damage was minimal to the machine in front. There were so many dents in the Dart that I don't think we could find where the damage was.

The last time that I saw Wheeler was in 1995, when my wife and I were in southern California on a business trip. Wheeler took us to a nice dinner in Corona del Mar. We had to park some distance from the restaurant, and walk to it. Wheeler was having difficulty walking. He pulled himself along by grabbing onto the vegetation. I offered to help him walk, but he refused. My beautiful and assertive wife however, wouldn't take no for an answer, and took him by the arm to help him walk. Wheeler graciously accepted. He had a courtly, gentlemanly manner with women, and my wife, like many before, absolutely adored him after that first visit.

In closing,

May God rest your soul, Professor North, you gave much, helped many, and asked little. If I can be only
half so kind and effective as you in my own life, I will be proud.

Very sincerely,
Dave James