If you know Richard Wheeler, there’s a good chance you know him really well.

For 38 years, countless mountain-area neighbors depended on Dr. Richard Wheeler, DDS, to keep their choppers in proper chewing trim. These days, though, the energetic Cragmont resident is sinking his teeth into non-professional fields of endeavor that are both equally rewarding and every bit as necessary to the public weal.

Originally from South Carolina, Wheeler honed his skills as an Army dentist serving in South Korea. With a brother living in Evergreen, he mustered out of the military and into Colorado, hanging out his shingle across the Centennial State map from Littleton to Steamboat Springs before sinking roots into the green banks of Bear Creek. If Wheeler’s dental chair got up and moved every few years, it never left central Evergreen, resting for 10 years in the Woodpecker Building before moving on to the Bear Creek Building and finally settling in an attractive Hilltop adobe.

Wheeler gladly donated his essential services to the handicapped, and fixed a lot of smiles for clients referred to him by Evergreen Christian Outreach. Even those neighbors who never saw him professionally will recognize Wheeler as “The Man Behind the Mask,” his monthly dental-oriented column that appeared for years in various local publications. Keenly interested in new medical advances, Wheeler was also an early proponent of automated external defibrillators.