Remembering My Mentor, Tom Wheeler

University of Oregon professor Tom Wheeler shares a moment with Music Industry Collective members Taylor Dalton (left), Elissa Carlson and Cassey Tollett on Oct. 12, 2017 in the Lillis Complex at the University of Oregon. (Phillip Quinn / Emerald)

Sad news out of Eugene this morning as one of the best professors I ever had - Tom Wheeler - passed away.

I took his Magazine Editor class as a senior in the journalism program at UO, and hit it off immediately, as he was a guitarist himself and was even the Editor-in-Chief for Guitar Player Magazine, which was seminal to my guitar playing.

He also freelanced for Rolling Stone, which I constantly nagged him to tell me stories about after class.

Over the years, I've often said that, along with a couple others, his class alone was worth the price of my massive school loans (which I'm still paying off). In that class, I wrote a business plan for a magazine, which I scored an A+ on. He asked if he could use my assignment for future classes, and I gladly said yes.

Tom Wheeler was one of my favorite professors and mentors as a journalist. He was a class act, a fascinating man who inspired me to pursue a career in magazines, which I did for about a decade (in addition to my broadcast career).

The lessons I learned from Tom still hold merit in the digital age, and who knows...one of these days maybe I'll make that business plan into a website.

If I do, it will be because of Tom Wheeler.

Rock in Paradise good sir.