Boyd Jon Wheeler

Boyd Jon Wheeler, a former Lab employee and Tracy resident, died March 23 in San Andreas. He was 65.

Born in Ogden, Utah, Dec. 6, 1942, Wheeler lived in Tracy for 20 years. He worked as a physicist at the Lab and was a member of the Sportscopter Association.

Wheeler’s family describes him as a special man who looked at every obstacle in life as a challenge to overcome — he never said the words “I can’t.” He was known to family and friends as an inventor and craftsman who could build anything with his two hands, from a house or a helicopter to a birthday cake.

Wheeler is survived by his wife of 13 years, Linda Wheeler of Tracy; children, Jon, Kelly, Troy, David, Tony, Boyd Jr., Kris and Kathryn Wheeler; siblings, Max Wheeler, and his wife, Diane, Kent Wheeler, and his wife, Judy, Ned Wheeler, and his wife, Donna, Nancy Kotter and Ruth Dillon, and her husband, Steve; 16 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Services were held in Tracy.