WASHINGTON – Police on Tuesday were investigating the death of a prominent retired US Army colonel whose body turned up over the weekend at a landfill in the nearby state of Delaware.
Authorities said the remains of John Parsons Wheeler, who held top jobs in the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations were found on New Year’s Eve a few miles from his home in New Castle, Delaware.
Wheeler, 66, reportedly had returned from a consulting job in at the Mitre Corporation in Washington on December 28, arriving via Amtrak in Wilmington, Delaware, police said. His body was discovered in the trash dump three days later.
A graduate of the prestigious West Point military academy, Harvard Business School and Yale Law School, Wheeler created a Vietnam veterans job program for Reagan, and the Earth Conservation Corps for at-risk youth for under the first president Bush.
He is best known in Washington circles for his role at the helm of the organization that built the controversial Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Among his numerous prominent posts, Wheeler served as the first chief executive officer of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving group.
He also had been a senior Securities Exchange Commission lawyer involved in insider trading investigations.
