[Seattle Go Center] In Memoriam: Dennis Wheeler

Dear Members,

I am sorry to report that long time Go Center volunteer and employee Dennis Wheeler passed away at home on April 14, after dealing with the harsh terms of his cancer for 3 ½ years. We extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to his family, especially his wife Vicki Wheeler.
I got to know Dennis after I became manager of the Go Center in 2008. He often went to our meet-up at Uwajimaya in the Chinatown-International District on Wednesdays, where Frank Fukuda was teaching. By 2010, he was responsible for the Uwajimaya group when Frank was traveling, and he took the lead there when Frank retired in 2013.

In October 2012, we were very happy to hire Dennis to be the Saturday manager of the Go Center, a position he continued until late 2019. Despite his long commute from Kent to reach the job, he was impressively reliable. Dennis enjoyed teaching beginners, both kids and adults. He used a gentle supportive style of teaching. His wife Vicki was often with him, and they would sometimes drive the long way home, giving rides to other Go players who otherwise would have to wait for a bus.

Dennis was a kyu player, but an expert game recorder, one of the best. Sitting next to the tournament players, he would enter the moves as they happened into his laptop for distribution via Go servers, such as KGS. Because of his recording skill, Dennis was invited to the AGA National Go Congress many times to record the top boards of the tournaments for the e-journal, and he knew many of the strong players.
Posting as “xed_over”, Dennis often contributed to online discussions about Go. He encouraged beginners, and provided helpful advice on equipment and software. For more advanced players, he carefully explained how the differences between Japanese rules, AGA rules and Chinese rules played out. (Usually it didn’t matter.)

Most of us at the Go Center knew Dennis as a tech guy, never very far from his laptop, but he got his start in traditional offset printing in Texas, for a publisher of religious materials, doing “prepress”, that is, preparing plates for printing. He then made an early transition to “digital prepress”, and got involved in software and coding. He traveled to Japan for work, and got more interested in Japan and playing Go. Because he could read some Japanese, he was able to help me learn more about our visiting pros. His style was quiet and competent and friendly. I will miss him very much.

There will be a celebration of life for Dennis Wheeler on Saturday, May 6th, at 1:00 p.m. at the Bellevue Church of Christ at 1212 104th Ave. SE, Bellevue, WA 98004. The church will be ready at 12:30 p.m.

Sincerely,
Brian Allen
(Retired manager)