Sally and Wayne Wheeler

This is part two of a two part interview with Wayne and Sally Wheeler, recorded in Washington state in March 2024. Wayne is a former Coast Guard officer who founded the U.S. Lighthouse Society in San Francisco in 1984, and he is now the president emeritus of the Society.

The idea for the formation of the Society blossomed when Wayne became the chief of the Aids to Navigation Branch for northern California. Most of the inquiries the Coast Guard’s public affairs staff was receiving involved lighthouses—and Wayne had the knowledge and the books to answer them. He developed a lecture about lighthouses, and one day he went home to his wife, Sally, and said, "Boy, there’s a lot of lighthouse enthusiasts out there. They ought to get organized.” And 40 years ago, the United States Lighthouse Society was born.