[3] He was educated at Colwyn Bay Grammar School, Eirias High School and Llandrillo College before attending the University College of North Wales, Bangor, where he studied as an undergraduate and subsequently gained a doctorate in psychology.
[1] Combined with a period as Senior Visiting Research Scholar at St John's College, Oxford,[1] he was head of the department of communication and media at Bournemouth University.
[1] During his tenure as vice chancellor, Wheeler has most recently been responsible for the purchase of Western Command Building, now Churchill House overlooking the River Dee in Chester, formerly owned by Lloyds Bank PLC and prior to that the acquisition of the Shell International Research Centre at Thornton, now the Thornton Science Park; County Hall, Chester and Kingsway High School by the university.
His successor is Professor Eunice Simmons, the first female vice-chancellor in the university's history.
He is married with three daughters and four grandchildren, lives in Cheshire and enjoys music, theatre and the arts.