Earl A. Wheaton Jr. ’50

Earl died peacefully March 23, 2021, at his beloved Valley (Bergen County, N.J.) Hospital after a short struggle with cancer.

Coming from Ridgewood (N.J.) High School, at Princeton he graduated with honors in biology and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Earl played 150-pound football and belonged to Dial. 

He graduated from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he completed his internship and residency in internal medicine. His medical career was interrupted in 1955-57 when he served as an Army captain in California.

In 1960 he entered private practice in Ridgewood as an internist-rheumatologist, combining it with teaching at a medical school. After three decades, he made a change to hospital administrator, which, as he wrote in our 50th reunion yearbook, provided “a new career and sense of usefulness.” For more than a decade he served the Valley Hospital as president of the medical staff and chief medical officer.

He was described as a gentle and gracious leader with a brilliant mind. He volunteered for the Valley Hospice and worked on a Bergen County initiative to provide free health care to the working uninsured.

Earl is survived by his wife, Jeanne; five children by his deceased first wife; four stepchildren; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.