I have known Jerrold Wheeler for over twenty years and he is a great man.What is it that makes a great man? Many people make the mistake that a great man is one who has a lot of power, or has made history. However, greatness ultimately is not measured in terms of how many people over whom you had authority, or how many people know your name. Ultimately, God measures greatness by the toils and sacrifices that you undertake to follow his will and by striving, everyday, to be the best man you can be. Jerrold Wheeler was a great man.Jerrold Wheeler was first and foremost a man. By this, I do not merely mean that he was a male, but rather that he personified the spirit and strength of manliness. He was brave. He was tough. He was honest. He was strong. He loved his family. He loved his country. He lived his life to the fullest extent.This character, and the great deeds of his life, made Jerrold a hero to me.A true man sees it as his duty to serve and provide for those more vulnerable than himself, and those who are dependent on him. In his roles as both grandfather and a citizen, Jerrold Wheeler strove to live up to that ideal - and succeeded.Speaking of the dead is always a difficult proposition- it must be delicate but true. It seems to me, however, that the main purpose of this note is to speak the truth about a person, rather than mouth meaningless platitudes. The truth about a person, in the end, is their only lasting monument. Stones are weathered, and friends and family die. Memories are forgotten. What does not change is the objective fact of a person’s actions. The ripples that their efforts make on the turbulent pond of human history have a lasting effect, and though they may disappear from our sight, they are forever in God’s. I know that Jerrold Wheeler would have nothing but the truth spoken of him, and I hope that this short note is a fitting reminder of the eternal monument of his actions and of a worthwhile and honorable life.I leave you with this quote from Euripides:When good men die their goodness does not perishBut lives though they are gone.As for the bad, all that was theirs diesAnd is buried with them.##imported-begin##Richard E.W. Bolin Jr##imported-end##
