Janice Large Wheeler and Richard Wheeler Foundation for Science and Technology Education Fund

In gratitude for and honor of Richard and Janice Large Wheeler

Richard and Janice Large Wheeler’s children established this fund with gratitude and honor to have been part of their lives, sharing lessons in strength, patience and love.

Janice spent her career teaching second grade, shaping young minds with dedication and heart. She began her career at a Montessori school in Cincinnati before becoming a second-grade teacher for the elementary school in Pedro and later in South Point. At home, she raised four children – each of whom became an engineer – instilling in them the same values she brought to her classroom: discipline, curiosity and perseverance. She wasn’t just their teacher at school – she was their greatest teacher in life.

Richard Wheeler was an engineer and hydraulic enthusiast. His talent took him around the globe, troubleshooting, designing, manufacturing and integrating systems that make the world move. The size of the project made little difference – it was the challenge to figure out a solution that drove him. Hydraulic engineering was a constant source of joy for Richard as it provided a new problem each day to solve. With hydraulics, there are many ways to accomplish the same end goal. Richard never settled for the average or accepted solution; his passion lay in the elegance of the hydraulic circuit and creating beauty in design. This passion and drive to discover the elegant solution garnered him life-lasting relationships with leaders in industry throughout the world that will not be forgotten.

A high point of Richard’s professional accomplishments was establishing Phoenix Hydraulics Inc. in South Point, Ohio, with his brother, Jack Wheeler, later joined by his son, Nick, wife Cheryl and grandson Jeff. A family affair and enduring point of family pride, the business first opened in September 1992 in the Columbus area. In May 1996, it was decided that the business move to Southern Ohio and to the original building that Richard and Jack had in South Point, where they had a machine shop years before. The size of the building had doubled from the previous owners, Racine Fluid Power, so it was suitable for the new home of Phoenix Hydraulics Inc.

Richard and his son, Michael, were involved with many complex projects, some very challenging but solvable. When you put these two engineers in a room, speaking hydraulics, they always had answers. Among their many collaborative achievements was a new design of the largest Bucyrus 495HR Shovel in the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, in 2008. The temperatures would dip to -20 to -50 degrees, and this shovel was the only one that would function during the cold winter months due to this new, custom hydraulic design. The hydraulic manifolds worked so well, that more units were purchased for Phoenix Hydraulics to manufacture, build and test for the next 10 shovels that were scheduled in production.

Other projects they engineered and designed include:

• Minesweeping stainless steel manifolds for naval ships
• Hydraulicly controlled offshore drilling rig in the North Sea
• Car crusher manifolds for automotive plants
• Pusher and tramper manifolds for cotton gins
• 100 HP Marathon compactor manifolds for their balers
• Ten Bridgestone/Firestone manifolds for tire machines, and
• The custom hydraulics on machinery at Phoenix Recycling in Costa Rica

Richard was also known as a great teacher who taught the engineering, assemblies and testing of each unit manufactured with co-ops from Ohio State University.