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Original Post By:
Bill Robertson
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Date: 7/13/2015 10:48:40 PM |
For those who knew him, the great Robert Wheeler passed away this morning.
Anyone who was part of what in the 90's and early 2000's was a pretty intimate ukulele scene on the mainland knows of Robert Wheeler. In the pre-YouTube era, when there was only one festival around (the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum's Uke Expo), only one website forum (this one) and only a few luthiers, Robert Wheeler loomed large. People knew him as a profane, funny, irascibly eccentric ointment fly, ukulele collector, and instrument historian. He owned some 300-plus ukuleles, each one of which had a story behind it that was either academically historic or personal. And he was the "founder" of a "religion" called Ukulele Consciousness.
Robert's contribution to my documentary Rock That Uke (2003) made it the successful study in ukulele eccentricity it is, and his comments consistently got the biggest laugh in every screening I witnessed, a fact that gave him no amount of pleasure. We remained good friends through the years, visiting each other from time to time wherever we were living in the country, and his friendship is something I treasure deeply. I will miss him more than I can say.
If you want to read some of Robert's musings on life, sex and all things ukulele, he wrote a column called "Ukulele Consciousness" on the old Rock That Uke website, which I haven't updated in many years. But the direct link to his column's archive is here:
http://rockthatuke.com/2005RTU/HTML/ukecon.htm
There will be a memorial ukulele picnic for him on August 22 at his home in Littleton, MA. |
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Posted By:
Tom B.
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Date: 7/14/2015 11:12:19 AM |
I remember him from this board's early days, but I never knew why he signed as Robert Wheeler Founder. Now I know, belatedly. Thanks for letting us know of his passing, Bill. RIP, Mr. Wheeler.
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Posted By:
Ukulele Rob
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Date: 7/14/2015 1:19:34 PM |
| I never had the chance to meet Mr. Wheeler in person, but really loved his Ukulele Consciousness postings. Even from a "virtual" distance one could tell that he was iconoclastic, bombastic, and huge-hearted and a joy to have as part of the ukulele community. He'll be very much missed.
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Posted By:
Rick Cota
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Date: 7/18/2015 11:32:38 PM |
| Sorry to hear about Robert, was thinking about him recently. During the early 2000's we met at the uke expo in Monclair and he he helped me pick out my first Matin soprano. We stayed in touch after that and I enjoyed reading his stories. He was one of a kind.
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