THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 7, 1994 TAG: 9409070443
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
Dr. Jock R. Wheeler settles onto the blue couch in his office - a little reluctantly.
He'd rather have a work table in front of him, where he and his colleagues could spread papers out. He'd rather dispense with the soft pillows and the coffee table. And he'd definitely rather not be facing a reporter, here in the dean's office at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
But Wheeler will, as he did in accepting this job, do his duty to the school.
Wheeler, 62, has excelled through the years in keeping his life private. But in June he was, as he puts it, in the right place at the right time. The school desperately needed a dean to replace Dr. Paula Stillman, who was asked to resign in June, and it especially needed a dean who could smooth things out, allay some fears and get the school's collective mind off administrative problems and back on academia.
A Hampton native, Wheeler was already chairman of the surgery department, having been named to that post by Stillman in February. He had a good working relationship with Dr. Edward E. Brickell, president of the school. He had worked with EVMS for about 20 years. And he was a known quantity, as opposed to Stillman, who came to EVMS from the University of Massachusetts.
``I didn't volunteer,'' Wheeler said of his appointment. ``I am here because the school had arrived at a particular time. I am at a stage in my life where I am available to give my efforts and time to the school.
``I'm not a stranger to them, so there is some comfort on my part and, hopefully, on theirs.''
What Wheeler is not comfortable with is publicity. A vascular surgeon with the Norfolk Surgical Group, he has managed to start a vascular research program at EVMS, begin the kidney-transplant program at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, help develop managed care for Optima and become chairman of surgery while accumulating about two paragraphs of newspaper coverage.
``If I had to tell you what I wanted the world to know (about me), it would probably be very little,'' Wheeler admitted. ``I'm a very private person. Most of my life has been spent developing activities in medicine and surgery, but not making them public.''
Now Wheeler has assumed a high-profile job, which he will formally take on Thursday during an installation ceremony.
He was named dean on the day that Stillman was asked to resign, only eight months after she began the job and became one of three female medical-school deans in the nation. School administrators refused to say why she was asked to leave, but insiders said differences arose over her efforts to get her husband, a gastroenterologist, on staff. She denied acting inappropriately on her husband's behalf.
Wheeler garnered an additional two paragraphs of news copy that day.
While largely invisible to the community at large, Wheeler is well-known in medical circles. Everyone there knows his name, speaks highly of his surgical skills, his manners, his class. But they hide behind anonymity when they suggest what they see as conflict of interest in his remaining a practicing vascular surgeon while holding the dean's job, or when they say the region's private medical powers have just gotten control of the school.
They are just as quick to say that Wheeler has done nothing wrong, that they believe his integrity will keep him from doing anything questionable while he is dean.
``Jock has been a plus for the medical school,'' said Dr. Mark Greenspan, a general surgeon who spoke on the record about Wheeler. ``The medical school desperately needs it. What will be in the future will be in the future. We can't see that. But the medical school has become a public trust and needs to remain that way.''
EVMS is community-based. With 400 students and 352 residents, it is typical in size of the country's other seven community-based medical schools. The school has 248 full-time faculty and about 700 community faculty - unpaid physicians who accept residents into their practices and help in other ways.
With no teaching hospital of its own, EVMS has working agreements with many area hospitals. That is an advantage with health care reform on the way, Wheeler said.
``EVMS is among the 10 percent of medical schools that are community-based,'' Wheeler said. ``With the changing health care environment, this is even more important than it has been in the past.
``We have a very strong working relationship with a number of hospitals in the area. It's a great opportunity for us to be able to strengthen those relationships and not have to be concerned about the changing hospital environment.
``It is an advantage to the school that I have experience in managed care as well as in competitive medical practice.''
Wheeler attended Virginia Military Institute on a scholarship, graduating in 1954, and served three years in the Navy as a flight surgeon.
He has worked with a number of postgraduate fellowship students over the years, enough that they have formed the Jock R. Wheeler Vascular Surgical Society, which meets each year in conjunction with the national professional meeting.
They call Wheeler ``Big Daddy.'' A coffee mug bearing his picture and that title sits next to the couch.
The new dean dismisses the society with a wave of his hand. He would rather talk about his second family and especially his daughter, Kensey, who will turn 6 the week after he turns 62. She is aunt to his 17-year-old grandson, but she hasn't, Wheeler said, noticed yet that her dad is older than her classmates' dads.
Wheeler tries to end his days by 8 or 8:30 p.m. so he can get home to his family. He reaches the office by 7 a.m., sometimes making hospital rounds before he launches into his new job.
``The days are long,'' he noted. ``But the hours are long at any job if you're committed to what you're doing.
``I am accustomed to hard work and long days.''
During his spare time, he reads spy novels. To make the most of his time, he listens to books on cassette while driving.
He smilingly says he has ``thousands'' of enemies but says seriously a few moments later that he doesn't think doctors create many enemies because they are in a caring profession and must develop relationships with other physicians in patient care.
``I certainly have competitors in the practice environment,'' he said. The enemies that he does have, he said, would probably say ``that I am opinionated about issues and I fight strongly about the things that I believe in.
``I hope,'' Wheeler said, ``that even my enemies would believe that I don't carry a grudge.''
He intends to run the dean's office as a team player. ``I don't think you can work in an organization as large as the medical school without being a team player,'' he said. ``I am not a dictator, despite what some might say.''
Despite the internal disruption in June when the last dean stepped down, Wheeler says his job is not so much to mend as to make sure the school's goals and commitments are kept in sight.
``It's important,'' he said, ``for the public to understand that this school has gotten stronger and stronger each year. That's the message that the dean needs to put out.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY EVMS by CNB