Arthur Oliver Wheeler - Alpine Club of Canada

Alpine Club of Canada

After the American Alpine Club was founded in 1902, its first president Charles Fay whom Wheeler had met at Glacier House in Rogers Pass suggested that a Canadian chapter of the club be formed. Wheeler took up the task of promoting the idea, but Elizabeth Parker, a journalist at the Winnipeg Free Press, objected strenuously to Canada becoming a subsidiary to the United States in this matter. Wheeler took her objections to heart, and as a result, when the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) was founded in 1906, Arthur Oliver Wheeler became its first President and Elizabeth Parker became its first Secretary.

The Alpine Club of Canada was his most important contribution. He was involved in every phase of the club's activities for the last thirty-eight years of his life. He served as President of the ACC from 1906 to 1910, and then Managing Director for 16 years from 1907 to 1930. The year following the founding of the Club, he prepared the first issue of the Canadian Alpine Journal and was its editor for 20 years until 1927. In 1907, as President of the Alpine Club of Canada, he attended the 50th anniversary celebration dinner of the Alpine Club (UK) in London.

In 1923 his beloved wife, Clara, died, and in 1924 he married Emmeline Savatard who had been the "Girl Friday" for the ACC for the previous 20 years and who remained with him until his death in 1945.

On his retirement he was named Honorary President of the ACC, and held the position from 1926 until his death in early 1945. He continued to be active in the club and was the driving force behind two of its most successful expeditions: the Mount Robson camp which in 1913 made the first confirmed ascent of the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies; and the 1925 first ascent of Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada.