July 4, 1924 – April 28, 2026
Richard P. Wheat, M.D. died April 28, 2026, in Carmel Valley, California. Born July 4, 1924, in Palo Alto, California, to Carl I. and Helen M. Wheat, Dick attended Pomona College before transferring to Occidental College in the Navy V-12 program. Upon graduating from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1948, he completed residencies at Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and the University of Washington’s VA Hospital. Then in 1951 he was recalled to active duty by the Navy, and served two years as a Medical Officer during the Korean Conflict.
Dick married Mary (Mickey) Wallace on December 26, 1945, and they shared 67 wonderful and devoted years together until her death on May 9, 2013.
In 1953, Dick and Mickey settled in Los Altos, CA, where he practiced Internal Medicine for 37 years. In addition to being on the Stanford Medical School Clinical Faculty for over three decades, he was a founding physician, medical staff leader, and the first publicly elected Board member of El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. After leaving private practice, he became that hospital’s inaugural Medical Director, following which he served as Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, overseeing primary care clinics in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Counties. He concluded his career as a Senior Medical Analyst for the VA Health System with the NASA/VA Patient Safety Reporting System, and finally retired in January 2005.
Family was Dick’s first love. Backpacking, camping, and traveling with Mickey, his children, and grandchildren created treasured memories, including treks in Nepal and Kashmir, sailing the Caribbean, and exploring North America in a compact—yet comfortable—trailer.
Dedicated to his community, Dick served for 36 years on the Board of the Sempervirens Fund, preserving Redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains, including sixteen years as the organization’s President. He was a founder and Medical Director of the Mountain View Community Free Clinic, and as a board member of the Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills Community Service Agency, he served as the Medical Advisor of its Alpha Omega homeless program. Dick and Mickey were also charter members of the Foothill Congregational Church of Los Altos.
In 2003, after 50 years in their Los Altos home, the couple moved to Carmel Valley Manor, a retirement community that couldn’t have suited them better. Enriched by the beauty of the area and many new friends, Dick became a late-in-life author, publishing two books, “The Saga of Dick and Mickey Wheat: The Story of an American Family” in 2012, and a novel, “Blood Red Vines” in 2015.
Dick is survived by his three sons, David (whose wife Barbara is deceased), Kenneth and his wife Shelley, and James and his wife Valerie—all of whom he loved as his own. His six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren were his special joy. Late in life, Dick was blessed by the love and companionship of Anna Beck, who preceded him in death in 2022.
Private family gatherings will celebrate his long and useful life, and he would be honored by contributions in his name to the Sempervirens Fund or Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, two organizations that make our communities a better place to live.
