[SFDXA] Bill Wheeler, K0DEW SK

[Bill]

Bill Wheeler was a well known Collins collector and Founder Of The 
Collins Collectors Association. "CCA". SK

Here is a story just written about another event he founded.

 From The CCA Reflector:

While members of this group knew Bill Wheeler, K0DEW, as a founder of 
the CCA, in his hometown of Lebanon, Mo., he was known as a civic-minded 
activist with a variety of interests, including Lebanon’s history as a 
waypoint on Route 66.

Here is an article posted today by the Lebanon/Laclede County Route 66 
Society under the headline “Route 66 Visionary Bill Wheeler Dies.” It 
includes prominent mention of ham radio:

Bill Wheeler, whose vision for Route 66 included organizing the first 
Lebanon Route 66 Festival and the Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 
Society, died Friday, April 17, 2020.

Wheeler also took the idea of a Route 66 Museum to the Lebanon-Laclede 
County Library board in 2002. And, as a city councilman, he developed 
the idea for Boswell Park to take on a Route 66 theme with murals 
promoting Laclede County’s role on The Mother Road.

In a 2001 interview promoting the first Lebanon Route 66 Festival, 
Wheeler told how he grew up along Route 66 in Pulaski County and still 
liked to travel the old road just to remember a time gone by.

That first festival was on Sept. 8, 2001, but plans began a year earlier.

In an interview with The Lebanon Daily Record, Wheeler told how he and 
some of his fellow amateur-radio operators were planning a special event 
station where the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would allow 
them to use a call sign that included Route 66 in commemoration of the 
75th anniversary of the historic road:

As the wheels began to turn for the radio project, the memories of the 
wheels of cars and trucks that once traveled the “Mother Road" began to 
turn as well.

That’s when Wheeler and his fellow radio operators decided that Lebanon 
would be an ideal location to celebrate the anniversary of Route 66 with 
a one-day festival to remember days gone by and to celebrate the history 
of the road that joined a nation.

“The FCC was seeing if it would all work in preparation for the 
celebration of the anniversary,” Wheeler, who is the event coordinator 
for the Kenneth E. Cowan Civic Center, said. “We have an active radio 
club here in town that I am a member of, and we got to talking about 
setting up a special-event station. Then somebody said, ‘Bill, we’ve 
never had a Route 66 activity of any kind and why don’t you think about 
it?’”

Wheeler did think about it and brought the idea of a festival before his 
advisory committee.

“It just grew from there,” he said. “We’re still going to have our 
special events (for the local amateur radio club), which this all 
started from, plus a lot of other things. We left our roots and expanded.”

That first festival included a parade, a “Route 66 Museum,” book 
signings by authors of several Route 66 books, an old-time ballgame and 
a sock hop with jukebox music. Food included “coneys” made as they used 
to be at Vern’s Malt Shop and basket burgers made as they were at the 
Triangle, two memorable Lebanon dining spots from the Route 66 era.

Wheeler served on the Route 66 Society board for many years and also 
served on the board of the Route 66 Association of Missouri.

In 2019, a record 14,722 visitors signed the Lebanon Route 66 museum’s 
guestbook. Visitors were from 200 Missouri cities, 49 states and 58 
countries.

Wheeler talked about the founding of the museum in this video that 
celebrated the library’s 15th anniversary in 2019: 
http://www.lebanonroute66.com/multimedia/video-celebrates-15th-anniversary-of-library-route-66-museum/video_97c2c26c-d678-11e9-9e2a-7b360c5fafe1.html

In 2013, as a Lebanon city councilman, Wheeler proposed the idea of a 
“pocket park” devoted to Route 66 within Boswell Park. The park’s 
features would include three Route 66 murals featuring scenes important 
to Laclede County’s role along the famous highway.

“We will have visitors from all over the world – not just from the state 
of Missouri, but literally all over the United States and the world 
coming to Lebanon,” he said at the time. “This is an economic impact for 
the city of Lebanon and Laclede County.”

The park now includes a replica Route 66 – “66 Mural Drive” – a Route 
66-themed playground, the three murals, a replica of the fountain at 
Nelson’s Dream Village and a restored cabin from Camp Joy, one of 
Lebanon’s first tourist camps.