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Rob L. Wheeler, age 73, of Lemmon, SD, passed away on Thursday, August 8, 2024 at the Five Counties Nursing Home in Lemmon.

Funeral services for Rob will held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, at the St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lemmon, SD.  Fr. Adam Hofer will officiate with burial to follow in the Greenhill Cemetery at Lemmon.

Visitation for Rob will held from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 13, 2024 at the Evanson Jensen Funeral Home in Lemmon.   A rosary/vigil service will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lemmon.

Rob L. Wheeler was born June 9, 1951 to RB and Frances (Surring) Wheeler in Hettinger, ND. The Wheeler Family, which would soon include a younger brother, Brad, made their home in Lemmon. From a very young age, Rob displayed a thirst for knowledge, a high aptitude for learning, and a memory that retained everything. He excelled at anything he put his mind and body to – from sports to academics. Rob was an Eagle Scout, wrestled, ran track and was All State in football.

Beginning a lifetime of travel, those early years were also filled with family trips attending lapidary shows all over the country for the jewelry business his parents started in 1946, Wheeler Mfg.

After graduating from Lemmon High School in 1969, Rob attended South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, SD where he earned a bachelor's in chemistry in 1973 and a master's in chemistry in 1975. While at SDSM&T, he worked in the chemistry department, was active in a fraternity, played football, and was involved in outdoor clubs where he would participate in cave crawling, rock climbing, and winter backpack skiing trips in Yellowstone National Park. During this time, Rob would design and sew his own specialized gear to handle the harsh conditions.

After graduating from SDSM&T, Rob attended the University of Wyoming where he would earn a second master's in industrial management. For much of college, Rob spent his summers working for the State of South Dakota in Weather Modification. It was for this job he was serendipitously stationed in Newell, SD in the summer of 1975 where he would meet the love of his life, Colette Huber. After just one week of dating, he told Colette he wanted to marry her – and they were married the following summer on June 5, 1976.

In December of 1977, Rob and Colette moved to Lemmon where he began working for the family business. He wore many hats but his primary responsibility was overseeing sales. This included putting together and overseeing a sales force across North America, managing customer relationships, and attending trade shows. In this role he helped grow the company to become the largest manufacturer and wholesaler of jewelry in the tourist and travel industry – a distinction it still carries today.

Rob and Colette welcomed a daughter, Lyndsey, into their family in 1982 and a son, Lucas, in 1985. Although Rob's job required a lot of time on the road, his family was his first priority. He would carefully balance work trips around attending important games and events for his children. Rob was tremendously proud of his kids and loved them unconditionally. To the very end, his biggest concern was knowing that his family would be taken care of.

Over these years, Rob also held a wide variety of interests and hobbies – becoming an expert in all of them. Rocks and geology, Native American artifacts, weather, the stock market, technology, landscaping and growing trees, modifying his John Deere tractor, muzzleloader hunting, and many more. His favorite hobby of all was taking fly fishing trips to "the pond" with Lucas and his friend John.

Rob also believed strongly in giving back to the community and his skills and knowledge were a huge asset to the organizations for which he served. Those roles included being a Boy Scout leader; the Lemmon School Board (including chairman); Governor's Action Committee for Education Task Force; SD State Board of Education; member of the SD Delegation for the National Science Foundation Grant Committee; Federal Reserve Board of Directors in Minneapolis (including chair of the Audit Committee); and the White House Conference for Small Business.

In the summer of 2015, Rob would discover his greatest joy – that of being "Grampy." He doted on his grandchildren and they were unquestionably what he was most proud of. Wherever he went he was constantly sharing pictures and providing regular updates on their latest developments to friends and strangers alike.

Having traveled roughly a million miles by car and several million by air with thousands of nights spent in hotels, Rob retired in 2021. Over the years he made countless friends in the industry and was always proud to have helped Wheeler Mfg. be known as a good and honorable company, or one of the "white hats" as he would describe it.

More significant than his enumerable talents and accomplishments, Rob was a great person. Perhaps a bit too blunt at times, at least you always knew where you stood with Rob. And beneath the gruff exterior was a man that greatly cared for and deeply loved everyone in his life – family, friends, employees, colleagues, and community members. He was generous in every sense of the word and lifted up so many personally and professionally. He was truly one of a kind.

Grateful for having shared his life are his wife Colette; daughter Lyndsey (Mike Schroeder) Wheeler, Lemmon, SD; son Lucas (Lindsey) Wheeler, Rapid City, SD; grandchildren Ellie Anne and Averie Colette Wheeler, Rapid City, SD and Anistyn Colette and Merrik Rob Schroeder, Lemmon, SD; brother Brad (Deborah) Wheeler, Lemmon, SD; brother-in-law Colgan (Patti) Huber, Sturgis, SD; Creden (Kristie) Huber, Sierra Vista, AZ; Kieran (Carmen) Huber, Rapid City, SD; sister-in-law Teena(Darren Greenwood) Huber, Spearfish, SD; and several nieces and nephews.

Rob was preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Frances Wheeler, his father-in-law Cletus 'Fizzer' Huber; his father-in-law and mother-in-law Eldon and Mary Herring, sister-in-law Marjean Huber and brother-in-law Kenan Huber.