David Allen Wheeler

PITTSTON – David Allen Wheeler died suddenly on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, at his home in Pittston, Maine.

David was born on Dec. 31, 1957, in Washington, D.C., to John Sidney Wheeler, Jr., and Gladys McNeely Alexander Wheeler. His brother Michael was two years older. David graduated from Crossland Senior High School in Temple Hills, Md., in 1975, and worked the rest of his life as a builder, carpenter, and cabinetmaker. A born craftsman, he attained great skill in joinery, boatbuilding, and fine woodworking.

He and Julia Moore (now Abernethy) married in 1982 in Port Clyde, Maine, and the couple had three children, Anais, Morgan, and Piper, over the next four years. David was a devoted father to his three children and, for a time in the 1990s, to stepdaughter Penelope Johnson Dougherty, daughter of his second wife Elizabeth Dickerson.

During the 1990s and 2000s, David worked in Maine shipyards including Renaissance Yacht, Sample’s Shipyard, and Hodgdon Yacht, and launched boats including Signe, Antonisa, and Scheherazade. He quit drinking in 1992 and was involved in Alcoholics Anonymous in the midcoast for over a decade, leading meetings and serving as a sponsor to many.

His partner Rahina McWethy moved from Minnesota to Maine to live with him in 2014. They settled in Pittston in 2016, purchasing and improving a hunting camp. David loved this property and enjoyed many peaceful days there.

We loved him deeply, and he is missed by his partner Rahina McWethy of Pittston, and their dog, Django; daughter Anaïs Wheeler and her partner Robert Pycior of Rockland, son Morgan Wheeler and his partner Kacie Loparto of Washington, Maine, daughter Piper Wheeler, her partner Sean McHenry, and granddaughters Nadine and Margo Maloney of Oakland, Calif.; and his brother Michael Wheeler, sister-in-law Becky Wheeler, and nephew Alex Wheeler, of Alexandria, Va.

He was predeceased by his parents Gladys McNeely (Alexander) Killoran and John Sidney Wheeler, and is survived by their respective spouses William Killoran of Springfield, Va., and Sandra Shoemaker of Centreville, Va. He is also survived by many books and DVDs, and his 1987 Land Rover Santana.

A celebration of life will be held at the Loudon Hill Center, 330 Water St., Hallowell, Maine, on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 2 p.m. A brief reception upstairs at Slate’s in Hallowell (161-165 Water Street) will follow at 3:30 p.m. All who knew David are welcome.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to:

The Apprenticeshop in Rockland (https://www.apprenticeshop.org/).

Please indicate this donation be earmarked for the Scholarship Tuition Program for Adult Boat Builders