 Wheeler was the 2001 recipient of the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to Western literature, and is a six-time Western Writers of America Spur Award winner.Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Richard Wheeler was raised in the suburb of Wauwatosa in a family descended from New England Puritans.Following graduation from Wauwatosa High School in 1953, Wheeler moved to California in the mid-1950s for three years.