William Wheeler (engineer)

The Meiji Emperor, in his efforts to modernize Japan, "looked to MAC as a model for progressive agricultural education"[11] and made contact with its president and Wheeler's former professor William S. Clark to help found Sapporo Agricultural College (SAC, now Hokkaido University).[12][13][14] Clark was granted leave from May 1876 to September 1877, and brought along three of his former students Wheeler, William Penn Brooks, and David P. Penhallow.[15][16]

Wheeler's duties included teaching mathematics, civil engineering, and English.[17][18] As a scientific adviser to the Kaitakushi (Hokkaido Development Commission) he set up a small meteorological observatory, surveyed potential transportation routes and oversaw the construction of a canal between Sapporo and Barato.[19] [20]

At Clark's return to the United States in 1877, Wheeler succeeded him as president of the SAC for a two-year contact,[21][22] returning briefly in July 1878 to marry and bring back with him Fannie Eleanor Hubbard.[23][24][25]

Back in Concord, Wheeler worked as a hydraulic engineer, was active in business and community affairs and served as a trustee of Massachusetts Agricultural College (1887–1929).[26][27] In 1880, Wheeler patented "a novel form of lighting that he commercialized through the Wheeler Reflector Company, a highly profitable company that was an important manufacturer of street lighting into the middle of the twentieth century."[28] He kept a journal during his exploration of Death Valley, California in 1900, one of the objects in the University of Massachusetts's Wheeler Papers collection.[29][30]

In 1924, in recognition of his contributions, the Japanese government awarded Wheeler the Order of the Rising Sun, Fifth Class.[31][32]

Wheeler named his Concord estate Maru-Yama Kwan in memory of his stay in Sapporo, and stayed there until his death in July 1932.[33][34]