Albert H. Wheeler - Early Career

Early Career

Wheeler was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, majoring in biology. He then studied for his master's in microbiology at Iowa State University in Iowa. He moved to Ann Arbor to continue his studies, working toward a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. After completing the doctoral degree, Wheeler took a job as a research associate at the university.

In 1952, he became an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan, and eventually became the university's first tenured African-American professor. Influenced by experiences of discrimination at the university and in attempting to secure a home mortgage in Ann Arbor, Wheeler also worked as a civil-rights activist on campus and in the city. He co-founded the Ann Arbor Civic Forum, which later became the city's NAACP chapter, and served as president of that body in the late 1960s. Wheeler, who was a Roman Catholic, took leave from the university in the early 1970s to serve in the Archdiocese of Detroit.