Wheeler, A. S. (Alvin Sawyer), 1866-1940

A.S. Wheeler was an internationally recognized expert on dyes and Kenan professor of organic chemistry at the University of North Carolina.

Alvin Sawyer Wheeler was born in 1866 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and grew up in Dubuque, Iowa. He was an 1890 graduate of Beloit College. After three years in the lumber business in Tacoma, Washington, and two years teaching in a Tacoma high school, Wheeler enrolled at Harvard, earning an M.A. in 1897 and a doctorate in organic chemistry in 1900. In that same year, he joined the chemistry faculty at the University of North Carolina, where he remained for the next forty years, rising to full professor in 1912 and, in the 1930s, becoming Kenan professor of organic chemistry.

While serving as mentor for young organic chemists, Wheeler was also an important member of the chemical community. He and his lab held numerous contracts with industry to conduct analyses on various substances used in manufacturing processes. Over the years, Wheeler came to be recognized as an international authority on dyes, publishing widely in chemical journals in this country and in Europe. One of the dyes he developed, known as Wheeler brown, was used as a shade for women's hosiery in the 1940s.

Wheeler was a member of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society and the North Carolina section of the American Chemical Society, serving both organizations as president. He also had interests apart from organic chemistry. Wheeler organized the Faculty Club at UNC, was a charter member of the Carolina Playmakers, and was active in the Presbyterian Church. He was married to Edith James and had two sons. Wheeler died in 1940.