The 14th Humbug of Platrix Chapter 2 of E Clampus Vitus in 1954
Frank Wheat, 79, of S.E.C. And California Desert Fight
By WOLFGANG SAXON JULY 29, 2000
Frank Wheat, a securities lawyer who became a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and also a tireless battler against despoilment of California's deserts, died on July 21 in Los Angeles. He was 79 and lived in nearby San Marino.
The cause was cancer, his family said.
Mr. Wheat was a retired senior partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international law firm based in Los Angeles. His career there lasted from 1948 to 1989, interrupted twice for leaves, first for his service on the S.E.C. during the Johnson administration and then again in the early 1970's, when he helped revamp the rule-making machinery for public accountants.
Mr. Wheat was the author of ''California Desert Miracle: The Fight for Desert Parks and Wilderness'' (Sunbelt Publications, 1999). It chronicled 27 years of environmentalists' campaigning to persuade Congress to pass the California Desert Protection Act. The legislation, signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, protects the Mojave Desert as a wilderness and added substantially to the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks.
The book minced no words in describing the effects that strip mining, illicit hunting and motorcycle racing had on the desert. But it also offered some lighter touches, for example the tale of five baby desert tortoises of a threatened species that were to be flown to Washington in a box not long before the bill was taken up:
''Pets cannot be taken on flights,'' an American Airlines attendant objected.
''These are not pets,'' their keeper told her. ''These are lobbyists.''
In the end, the baby lobbyists made their flight and, once in Washington, secured several new sponsors for the bill. The airline's president even refunded the extra $200 it had taken to fly them there.
Long before joining the campaign for the bill, Mr. Wheat, a mountain climber, had written many articles testifying to his love of the outdoors. Once he did join the campaign, in the 1980's, he raised money, sat on coordinating committees and used all the influence he had acquired in Washington. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, a friend and fellow lawyer in Los Angeles, once said that Mr. Wheat ''does not just lend his name to causes, he puts his shoulder to the wheel and pushes.''
Mr. Wheat was also founding president of the Alliance for Children's Rights, a founder and trustee of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, a founder and past co-chairman of the California Commission on Campaign Financing and an early supporter of the California Citizens Budget Commission. He was a former board member of the Center for Law in the Public Interest, which established a fellowship in his name to train young lawyers in public-interest litigation.
Francis Millspaugh Wheat, a native of Los Angeles, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Pomona College in 1942 and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1948. In between, he served in the Navy as a lieutenant.
He was appointed to the five-member S.E.C. by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and remained until 1969. Two years later, at the request of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, he agreed to head a special panel to study changes in how accounting standards were set. The resulting Wheat Report of 1972 prompted the institute to replace its unpaid Accounting Principles Board with a Financial Accounting Standards Board of paid members.
Mr. Wheat is survived by his wife of 55 years, Nancy Warner Wheat; three sons, Douglas L., of Colorado Springs, Carl I., of Ventura, Calif., and Gordon W., of Olympia, Wash.; a brother, Dr. Richard P., of Los Altos, Calif.; and seven grandchildren.
Frank Wheat, 79, of S.E.C. And California Desert Fight
By WOLFGANG SAXON JULY 29, 2000
Frank Wheat, a securities lawyer who became a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and also a tireless battler against despoilment of California's deserts, died on July 21 in Los Angeles. He was 79 and lived in nearby San Marino.
The cause was cancer, his family said.
Mr. Wheat was a retired senior partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international law firm based in Los Angeles. His career there lasted from 1948 to 1989, interrupted twice for leaves, first for his service on the S.E.C. during the Johnson administration and then again in the early 1970's, when he helped revamp the rule-making machinery for public accountants.
Mr. Wheat was the author of ''California Desert Miracle: The Fight for Desert Parks and Wilderness'' (Sunbelt Publications, 1999). It chronicled 27 years of environmentalists' campaigning to persuade Congress to pass the California Desert Protection Act. The legislation, signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, protects the Mojave Desert as a wilderness and added substantially to the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks.
The book minced no words in describing the effects that strip mining, illicit hunting and motorcycle racing had on the desert. But it also offered some lighter touches, for example the tale of five baby desert tortoises of a threatened species that were to be flown to Washington in a box not long before the bill was taken up:
''Pets cannot be taken on flights,'' an American Airlines attendant objected.
''These are not pets,'' their keeper told her. ''These are lobbyists.''
In the end, the baby lobbyists made their flight and, once in Washington, secured several new sponsors for the bill. The airline's president even refunded the extra $200 it had taken to fly them there.
Long before joining the campaign for the bill, Mr. Wheat, a mountain climber, had written many articles testifying to his love of the outdoors. Once he did join the campaign, in the 1980's, he raised money, sat on coordinating committees and used all the influence he had acquired in Washington. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, a friend and fellow lawyer in Los Angeles, once said that Mr. Wheat ''does not just lend his name to causes, he puts his shoulder to the wheel and pushes.''
Mr. Wheat was also founding president of the Alliance for Children's Rights, a founder and trustee of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, a founder and past co-chairman of the California Commission on Campaign Financing and an early supporter of the California Citizens Budget Commission. He was a former board member of the Center for Law in the Public Interest, which established a fellowship in his name to train young lawyers in public-interest litigation.
Francis Millspaugh Wheat, a native of Los Angeles, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Pomona College in 1942 and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1948. In between, he served in the Navy as a lieutenant.
He was appointed to the five-member S.E.C. by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and remained until 1969. Two years later, at the request of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, he agreed to head a special panel to study changes in how accounting standards were set. The resulting Wheat Report of 1972 prompted the institute to replace its unpaid Accounting Principles Board with a Financial Accounting Standards Board of paid members.
Mr. Wheat is survived by his wife of 55 years, Nancy Warner Wheat; three sons, Douglas L., of Colorado Springs, Carl I., of Ventura, Calif., and Gordon W., of Olympia, Wash.; a brother, Dr. Richard P., of Los Altos, Calif.; and seven grandchildren.
The 14th Humbug of Platrix Chapter 2 of E Clampus Vitus in 1954
Frank Wheat, 79, of S.E.C. And California Desert Fight
By WOLFGANG SAXON JULY 29, 2000
Frank Wheat, a securities lawyer who became a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and also a tireless battler against despoilment of California's deserts, died on July 21 in Los Angeles. He was 79 and lived in nearby San Marino.
The cause was cancer, his family said.
Mr. Wheat was a retired senior partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international law firm based in Los Angeles. His career there lasted from 1948 to 1989, interrupted twice for leaves, first for his service on the S.E.C. during the Johnson administration and then again in the early 1970's, when he helped revamp the rule-making machinery for public accountants.
Mr. Wheat was the author of ''California Desert Miracle: The Fight for Desert Parks and Wilderness'' (Sunbelt Publications, 1999). It chronicled 27 years of environmentalists' campaigning to persuade Congress to pass the California Desert Protection Act. The legislation, signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, protects the Mojave Desert as a wilderness and added substantially to the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks.
The book minced no words in describing the effects that strip mining, illicit hunting and motorcycle racing had on the desert. But it also offered some lighter touches, for example the tale of five baby desert tortoises of a threatened species that were to be flown to Washington in a box not long before the bill was taken up:
''Pets cannot be taken on flights,'' an American Airlines attendant objected.
''These are not pets,'' their keeper told her. ''These are lobbyists.''
In the end, the baby lobbyists made their flight and, once in Washington, secured several new sponsors for the bill. The airline's president even refunded the extra $200 it had taken to fly them there.
Long before joining the campaign for the bill, Mr. Wheat, a mountain climber, had written many articles testifying to his love of the outdoors. Once he did join the campaign, in the 1980's, he raised money, sat on coordinating committees and used all the influence he had acquired in Washington. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, a friend and fellow lawyer in Los Angeles, once said that Mr. Wheat ''does not just lend his name to causes, he puts his shoulder to the wheel and pushes.''
Mr. Wheat was also founding president of the Alliance for Children's Rights, a founder and trustee of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, a founder and past co-chairman of the California Commission on Campaign Financing and an early supporter of the California Citizens Budget Commission. He was a former board member of the Center for Law in the Public Interest, which established a fellowship in his name to train young lawyers in public-interest litigation.
Francis Millspaugh Wheat, a native of Los Angeles, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Pomona College in 1942 and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1948. In between, he served in the Navy as a lieutenant.
He was appointed to the five-member S.E.C. by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and remained until 1969. Two years later, at the request of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, he agreed to head a special panel to study changes in how accounting standards were set. The resulting Wheat Report of 1972 prompted the institute to replace its unpaid Accounting Principles Board with a Financial Accounting Standards Board of paid members.
Mr. Wheat is survived by his wife of 55 years, Nancy Warner Wheat; three sons, Douglas L., of Colorado Springs, Carl I., of Ventura, Calif., and Gordon W., of Olympia, Wash.; a brother, Dr. Richard P., of Los Altos, Calif.; and seven grandchildren.
Frank Wheat, 79, of S.E.C. And California Desert Fight
By WOLFGANG SAXON JULY 29, 2000
Frank Wheat, a securities lawyer who became a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and also a tireless battler against despoilment of California's deserts, died on July 21 in Los Angeles. He was 79 and lived in nearby San Marino.
The cause was cancer, his family said.
Mr. Wheat was a retired senior partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international law firm based in Los Angeles. His career there lasted from 1948 to 1989, interrupted twice for leaves, first for his service on the S.E.C. during the Johnson administration and then again in the early 1970's, when he helped revamp the rule-making machinery for public accountants.
Mr. Wheat was the author of ''California Desert Miracle: The Fight for Desert Parks and Wilderness'' (Sunbelt Publications, 1999). It chronicled 27 years of environmentalists' campaigning to persuade Congress to pass the California Desert Protection Act. The legislation, signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, protects the Mojave Desert as a wilderness and added substantially to the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks.
The book minced no words in describing the effects that strip mining, illicit hunting and motorcycle racing had on the desert. But it also offered some lighter touches, for example the tale of five baby desert tortoises of a threatened species that were to be flown to Washington in a box not long before the bill was taken up:
''Pets cannot be taken on flights,'' an American Airlines attendant objected.
''These are not pets,'' their keeper told her. ''These are lobbyists.''
In the end, the baby lobbyists made their flight and, once in Washington, secured several new sponsors for the bill. The airline's president even refunded the extra $200 it had taken to fly them there.
Long before joining the campaign for the bill, Mr. Wheat, a mountain climber, had written many articles testifying to his love of the outdoors. Once he did join the campaign, in the 1980's, he raised money, sat on coordinating committees and used all the influence he had acquired in Washington. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, a friend and fellow lawyer in Los Angeles, once said that Mr. Wheat ''does not just lend his name to causes, he puts his shoulder to the wheel and pushes.''
Mr. Wheat was also founding president of the Alliance for Children's Rights, a founder and trustee of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, a founder and past co-chairman of the California Commission on Campaign Financing and an early supporter of the California Citizens Budget Commission. He was a former board member of the Center for Law in the Public Interest, which established a fellowship in his name to train young lawyers in public-interest litigation.
Francis Millspaugh Wheat, a native of Los Angeles, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Pomona College in 1942 and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1948. In between, he served in the Navy as a lieutenant.
He was appointed to the five-member S.E.C. by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and remained until 1969. Two years later, at the request of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, he agreed to head a special panel to study changes in how accounting standards were set. The resulting Wheat Report of 1972 prompted the institute to replace its unpaid Accounting Principles Board with a Financial Accounting Standards Board of paid members.
Mr. Wheat is survived by his wife of 55 years, Nancy Warner Wheat; three sons, Douglas L., of Colorado Springs, Carl I., of Ventura, Calif., and Gordon W., of Olympia, Wash.; a brother, Dr. Richard P., of Los Altos, Calif.; and seven grandchildren.
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