David Cole Wheeler

ABOUT

Every year tens of thousands of family members lose loved ones to gun violence.  A number of them find the courage to speak very articulately about their loss but none are more eloquent than David Cole Wheeler.  David’s son, Benjamin Andrew Wheeler, was one of twenty first-graders murdered on December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Along with the six dedicated educators this was the worst grade-school mass shooting in American history. 

David’s gift is his willingness to share his journey of grief and his effort to make sense of a tragedy that by all measures seems senseless; only through understanding is it possible to find solutions that will help make our communities safer.  Together with moving accounts of his personal experience, David’s talk offers a sharp and thoughtful analysis, helping his audience to pull back the frame and see how cultural and societal change must be the driving force to protect future generations of children from the threat of gun violence. 

David is not new to the stage; he worked for twenty years in New York City as an actor in theater, film and television.  When it was time for a career better suited for supporting a family, David found another creative pursuit in design and illustration.  He now works in publishing, particularly gift publishing, package design and illustration

Raised in New Hampshire, David returned to New England in 2007 with his wife Francine and sons Nate and Ben, drawn to Sandy Hook, Connecticut because of its strong sense of community spirit, cultural appreciation and good schools.  Their bucolic existence was shattered forever on December 14th. Adding to the anguish of losing Ben, Nate Wheeler, then in the fourth grade, was at Sandy Hook Elementary that day and experienced the terror firsthand. 

Not content to let Ben’s death fade in public memory without sparking much needed cultural and behavioral changes, David is devoting himself to several efforts over and above public speaking and media interviews.

David and his wife are members of the board of Ben’s Lighthouse, an organization initiated by friends and neighbors in Sandy Hook and Newtown. The mission of Ben’s Lighthouse is to support, uplift and nurture the children of Newtown and other communities affected by trauma in a supportive and caring environment through group program activities and community service with the motto “Helping is Healing”.

After testifying before the Connecticut State Legislature’s Bipartisan Task Force on Gun Violence, testimony that was highlighted on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, David, together with his wife Francine, have been featured having honest and candid conversations with Rachel Maddow on The Rachel Maddow Show, Bill Moyers on Moyers and Company and Scott Pelli on 60 Minutes. In 2013 they had a conversation with Oprah Winfrey, resulting in a profile piece in the December 2013 issue and an episode of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, airing on November 24th, 2013 on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Their story is included in the 2016 feature film Documentary “Newtown” directed by Kim Snyder.

David was recently included in articles published in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and the Columbia Journalism Review, and in June of 2014 he addressed the United Nations Fifth Biennial Meeting of States on behalf of the International Action Network on Small Arms in support of their Programme of Action.

MEDIA