Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Under a canopy of colorful fall leaves, retired State Sen. Harold H. "Potch" Wheeler, (District 17, R-Larwill), was honored Wednesday by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
At a ceremony at Pisgah Marsh, Durham Lake Wetland Conservation Area, IDNR Director John R. Goss noted the senator's interest in state resources.
"Wheeler got to know the DNR staff and became a very special advocate," Goss said, calling him a stalwart member of the senate's Natural Resources Committee. Wheeler chaired the committee for many years.
"He also chaired water study committees and we can now enforce violations seriously," Goss said.
Goss said Wheeler was behind the recent fee increases and believed in funding programs.
Wheeler, supporting himself with a crutch, thanked Goss for his words.
"It took a lot of people to put this together and it takes a lot of good people to run an agency," he said of the DNR. "We need to look out after our natural resources. When they're gone, there aren't any more. We need to take care of our natural resources and thank the people who do the work to take care of it."
Goss unveiled a huge boulder with a brass plaque affixed recognizing Wheeler for his years of service to the department.
This particular conservation area is south of CR 350N in Kosciusko County, west of the Harold "Potch" Wheeler Highway - Ind. 5.
Part of the 900-acre area is a federally protected refuge and part is open to hunting and fishing, according to the DNR's Katie Smith.
She described plans to install a one-fourth-mile-long boardwalk and education center leading to an "esker," a hill carved by glacier movement eons ago.
Wheeler was appointed by Republican caucus to the State Senate in 1983 to complete the term of of Gene Snowden of Huntington.
He was elected to office in 1986 and re-elected in 1990 through 1998. He was the majority caucus chairman.
In addition to serving the Natural Resources Committee, he also sat on the Appointments and Claims, Pensions and Labor and Rules and Legislative Procedure committees.
Born Sept. 4, 1929, he is married to Darlene and president of M.C. Wheeler & Sons.
District 17, which Wheeler represented for two decades, includes Kosciusko, Whitley, Huntington, Wabash, Allen and Grant counties.
Another Whitley County native, Gary "Doc" Dillon, is now the District 17 representative.
