Eric Schwennesen: Terry Wheeler

Many others are able to better document Terry’s biography than I can; but that said, he has been a great friend, colleague and guide for the forty-three years we have worked together.

I first met Terry in 1977, shortly after I came off the northern Nevada range as a working cowboy/ranch manager, still carrying the impression that there weren’t any actual people in the world. (Nevada can have that effect.) Together with wife Jean we made the move closer to grandparents in Prescott, jumping at the promise of work with the UA Extension on the Navajo Nation. Our first official activity was at the Extension Annual Conference in Tucson, and I still recall a vast roomful of technical people dominated by one rowdy voice which seemed unimpressed by the academic pomp all around us. That was Terry posing, as I later learned, as himself.

Even at that time he was a fixture as THE Extension agent for the San Carlos Apache. He was well-known for his sometimes unorthodox but always-effective programs in support of good livestock, and good range management. During his many years there he was central to the UA Animal Science cooperative effort with the Apache, helping to bring about the noted R-100 Hereford herd.

Rarely have field programs meshed more effectively with academia, as Terry helped keep UA’s AnSci and Range Departments on their toes, on the range, and in the manure.

 

(following initial comments)

In light of Terry’s unintended life as a figurehead of pioneer Arizona cowboy existence, it seems only right to propose a Memorial to his underappreciated efforts. A proposal for such a Memorial has now been suggested with the following criteria, inviting any and all craftsmen and artists to submit designs and appropriate themes:

1. Central figure to be offered as a larger than life-size, realistic representation of Terence (Terry) Wheeler, standing, possibly attended by his horse held loosely by the reins; figure to be in an attitude of relieving himself, from a point somewhat above surrounding secondary figures.
2. Central figure should be so designed or assembled that active plumbing will be installed internally, to render actuality to the figure’s relieving stance.
3. Such active plumbing should be so designed as to allow a controllable rate of flow, this being of importance to the overall message conveyed by the Memorial. (Rate of flow calibrated from “Light Sprinkling” to “Pressure-Wash”, possibly individually targeting secondary figures,)
4. In the event that the successful design includes Mr. Wheeler’s horse, the horse should also be presented and designed in an attitude of relieving himself, such plumbing and design to be added into the overall effect of the Memorial, possibly in the form of a small waterfall.
5. It is proposed that the central figure be installed on an actively rotating base, as this forms a critical piece of the Memorial’s message, viz.: a generalized urination upon the upturned heads of a substantial number of secondary figures.
6. Secondary figures to be presented in classical forms of torment and anguish such as those created by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci; some to be presented as clinging to, clambering over or wielding overhead, massive volumes of Regulatory Statutes.
7. As it is anticipated that this Memorial will be installed on or near the present site of Mr. Wheeler’s triumphant “FLOSB Mine Spoils Reclamation Demonstration”, the secondary figures should be tastefully arranged such that the majority of them will have their backs turned, or faces turned away from, the dramatically transformed Demonstration landscape.
8. Secondary figures are intended to metaphorically represent Government Agencies at all levels from Federal to local; therefore the majority of them should be represented as having hands unsoiled by labor.

Submissions, plans, proposals and contributions should be made to a designated receiver/coordinator c/o Gila County Cattlegrowers’ Association in Globe, Arizona.