Published: March 14, 2009 01:17 pm      

Emmit Rowland Wheat

Emmit Rowland Wheat, 95, of Oklahoma City, died Thursday, March 12, 2009, at Oklahoma Heart Hospital in Oklahoma City.

The family will receive visitors from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Bishop Funeral Home.

Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Oak Hill Cemetery with Pastor Lisa Anderson officiating, assisted by Hugh Baysinger and Edd Gifford. Masonic services will be provided by McAlester Blue Lodge No. 96. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Bishop Funeral Service of McAlester.

Born Dec. 4, 1913, in Beaver Mountain, near Quinton, he was the son of Ike P. and Nancy Baggs Wheat. He attended grade school in Blocker and later graduated from McAlester High School.

In 1934 He attended Conner’s State College and graduated from Oklahoma A and M College in 1938, earning his teaching degree.

He began his career at Haywood, as a principal from 1938 to 1939. He also was a teacher and choral director for Cromwell Public School as well as a teacher at Fort Gibson, Midwest City, Oklahoma City, and Corcoran, Calif. He married Helen Wolf on March 14, 1941, in McAlester.

He served in the United States Army between 1942 and 1945 during World War II, being stationed in the Philippines, New Guinea, and Japan.

He earned his doctorate degree from Tulsa University in 1963. He retired from Northeastern State University, where he served as a professor of mathematics for more than 20 years, retiring in 1979.

He spent the last 13 years in Oklahoma City. He was a 32nd degree Mason and a member of McAlester No. 96 Blue Lodge.

Survivors include daughter, Nancy Lee and Hugh Baysinger, of Oklahoma City; grandchildren, Melody Ann English, of Oklahoma City, and Richard R. English, of Edmond; three great-grandchildren, Grayson Rowland English, of Edmond, Miles Rowland English, of Edmond, and Ashlyn F. English, of Edmond; a niece and spouse, Harveta and Edd Gifford, Wichita, Kan., and numerous great-nieces and great-nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Helen Wheat; three brothers; two sisters, and an infant child.

Honorary pallbearers will be Dr. Herbert Monks, Dr. Charles Carroll, Dr. Kirk Boatright and Bill McKee

Memorials may be made to Mathematics Department at Northeastern State University at Tahlequah.