Wayne Wheeler is one of the pioneers of the lighthouse preservation movement and one of the foremost experts on lighthouse history in the U.S. Wayne spent 23 years in the Coast Guard in the aids to navigation field. In the early 1980s, when he was the chief of the Coast Guard’s aids to navigation branch in northern California, questions involving lighthouses were always being forwarded to him. As a result, the United States Lighthouse Society came into being in 1984.
Wayne received the Heritage Award from the Foundation of Coast Guard History for creating the United States Lighthouse Society. Today, he is the president emeritus of the Society. Wayne’s wife, Sally, also takes part in this interview, which was recorded in Washington state in March 2024. Also featured is a new segment on news from the lighthouses of southern New England, with Judianne Point.