Charles Wheeler

Charles Wheeler offered a good-natured apology but couldn't suppress a grin when he heard a visitor had disabled a car trying to negotiate the steep, rutted, rock-strewn cowpath up to his rustic mountain retreat. He has gone to great lengths to put a rugged buffer between himself and the world, and he clearly was pleased to learn it works. As satisfied as he is that people are discovering his fiction, Wheeler hopes no one discovers him.

Charles F. Wheeler, a cinematographer for half a century who was nominated for an Academy Award for "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and for an Emmy for the CBS television movie "Babe," about athlete Mildred Zaharias, has died. Wheeler, 88, died Thursday in the city of Orange. He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease. To make the 1970 "Tora! Tora! Tora!"

Charles F. Wheeler, a cinematographer for half a century who was nominated for an Academy Award for "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and for an Emmy for the CBS television movie "Babe," about athlete Mildred Zaharias, has died. Wheeler, 88, died Thursday in the city of Orange. He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease. To make the 1970 "Tora! Tora! Tora!"

Charles Wheeler offered a good-natured apology but couldn't suppress a grin when he heard a visitor had disabled a car trying to negotiate the steep, rutted, rock-strewn cowpath up to his rustic mountain retreat. He has gone to great lengths to put a rugged buffer between himself and the world, and he clearly was pleased to learn it works. As satisfied as he is that people are discovering his fiction, Wheeler hopes no one discovers him.

Charles A. Wheeler has been promoted to senior vice president of Union Bank's foreign exchange department.

The UC Irvine men's tennis team, ranked 21st in the nation, opened the season with a 5-3 nonconference victory over No. 23 New Mexico in a match that took nearly eight hours to complete. Anteaters Neel Grover and Charles Wheeler won in doubles, 6-3, 7-5, to end the match, which started at 5 p.m. Sunday in New Mexico's new indoor tennis stadium, which has only three courts. The match ended at 1 a.m. Monday. Irvine won four of six singles matches.

A California couple who hired a British woman to have a baby for them and then backed out when they found she was carrying twins will continue paying her medical expenses despite a bitter court battle the three are involved in, attorneys said Thursday. Surrogate mother Helen Beasley, 26, who is preparing to deliver twins in December, will receive $6,500 from Charles Wheeler and Martha Berman of Berkeley on Monday, the couple's attorney, Monty McIntyre, said.

Neal Grover and Charles Wheeler of UC Irvine won in doubles to help UC Irvine to a 5-4 victory over New Mexico in a nonconference men's tennis match Monday at Irvine. Grover and Charles defeated Gene Carswell and Roy Canada, 6-1, 2-6, 7-6, to break a 4-4 tie for host UC Irvine (7-3). Mike Roberts won, 6-2, 6-3, Carsten Hoffmann won, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, Jeff Miyamoto won, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, and Brett Stern won, 6-3, 6-4, for Irvine.

Steve Saba of Saddleback College defeated Kelly Nygaard of Grossmont, 6-0, 6-4, Friday in a third-round qualifying match of the 19th Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn. Holiday Tournament at Sunny Hills Racquet Club. Saba became the only community college player to reach the main draw in the men's singles division. Paul Tracey joined five UC Irvine teammates in the 32-player main draw, qualifying with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Lawrence Casas of Mesa (Colo.) State.

USC, ranked No. 2 in the nation, defeated No. 13 UC Irvine, 5-1, for the championship of the Anteater Marriott Tennis Classic on Sunday at Irvine. The Trojans, who were the tournament's top-seeded team, won five of six singles matches. Brian MacPhie, ranked 36th in the nation, beat No. 33 Mike Roberts, 6-2, 7-5, and No. 21 Byron Black beat No. 59 Brett Hansen-Dent, 6-1, 6-1, to pace USC.

Kathryn Wheeler, the eldest grandchild of Irvine Co. founder James Irvine II and a former longtime board member of the James Irvine Foundation, has died. She was 83. Wheeler died of pancreatic cancer Saturday at her home in Corona del Mar. Born in the old Irvine family house on the 110,000-acre Irvine Ranch in Orange County on Feb. 27, 1920, Wheeler was the daughter of Frank Lillard and Kathryn Irvine Lillard. Her mother died three days after giving birth to her daughter.

A Covina man convicted of intentionally sinking his fishing boat to collect on a $350,000 insurance policy was sentenced to three years in prison. Charles Lewis Wheeler, 46, was convicted of one count of sinking his San Pedro-based boat on Aug. 13. A Los Angeles federal court jury announced it was deadlocked 11 to 1 for conviction on a second count of conspiracy to destroy the vessel, and the charge was dismissed later. Wheeler faced a possible life term in prison, but U.S.