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Couple cherish worldly friend

An Admiral Farragut leader considers Bob Geldof like a son - the kind who orchestrates global change and then drops by for a visit.

By MARY JANE PARK
Published June 29, 2005

	[Times photo: 1986]
	Bob Geldof gave the commencement speech at Admiral Farragut Academy in 1986, the year after he organized Live Aid. He came at the invitation of Adm. Richard Wheeler, a former headmaster and now head trustee. Adm. Richard Wheeler (photo right) of Treasure Island met Geldof in London. "It's been a long friendship," he said.

ST. PETERSBURG - The creative genius behind this weekend's Live 8 concerts has signed autographs in Tyrone Square Mall and once was the graduation speaker at Admiral Farragut Academy.

Irish musician Bob Geldof organized the monumental event to raise awareness of world poverty. Concerts are scheduled Saturday in cities that include London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Tokyo, Moscow, Johannesburg and Philadelphia. They are timed just ahead of the G8 summit in Scotland, which convenes July 6.

Economic aid to Africa and global warming are the chief considerations to be discussed among the leaders of the eight member states, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus the European Union.

Geldof is perhaps best known for Live Aid, the telethon he organized in 1985 for famine relief in Ethiopia. It raised millions of dollars for the cause. Geldof was made an honorary knight and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Lesser known is his longtime friendship with a retired military officer, which brought him to St. Petersburg in 1986. At Admiral Farragut's commencement that spring, he told graduating seniors: "Unlike you, and I say this with no sense of either pride or shame, I didn't have a graduation day. I ran out of the school gates. ... And I hadn't gotten far inside the gates when I recognized a boy of 15 that I didn't really want to meet again: myself. And I turned around and walked out."

The former lead singer of the Boomtown Rats came to the Tampa Bay area at the invitation of Adm. Richard G. Wheeler, a onetime headmaster and superintendent at the school, where he worked for 34 years. He is now president of the board of trustees.

Wheeler and his wife, Louisa, got acquainted with Geldof and British television host Paula Yates in London at the beginning of a tour that took them first to Poland, then Siberia and Mongolia, across the Gobi Desert and into China and Hong Kong.

"It's been a long friendship," Dick Wheeler said in a telephone interview Tuesday, a few hours after he and Lou had returned from a weeklong trip to Beijing.

Wheeler, 77, fought in the U.S. Navy during World War II and retired as a colonel in the Army after having served in Korea and Vietnam. Mrs. Wheeler spent her childhood in Britain. They attended the Geldof-Yates wedding and are godparents to their eldest daughter, Fifi Trixibelle.

Geldof and Yates, who died in 2000, had two other children, Peaches Honeyblossom and Pixie. He also has custody of Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, Yates' daughter with Australian rock star Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997.

"We consider him another son," Wheeler said of Geldof. "He's one of the finest young men I've ever met. He's got to be, to do the things he does, plus (managing) his own family life, taking care of the four girls. He's a wonderful father."

The Wheelers travel to Great Britain more often than Geldof gets to Treasure Island, and they visit by phone. Geldof lives in London and has a priory in Faversham, Kent, where the Wheelers stayed most recently in March.

"It seems like no matter how busy he is, every time we go over there, I just call him on his cell phone," Wheeler said. "He'll meet us someplace in London, or we'll go out to the priory. It's very nice down there."

Geldof showed the same warmth to a young fan who recognized him as he and the Wheelers were chatting in the food court at Tyrone Square Mall.

"Bob says, "I'm eating right now. I'll see you later,' " Wheeler said. "Sure enough, after he finished eating, Bob got up and went over to the place where the kid was," rewarding the youngster's patience with his autograph.

MTV and VH-1 will broadcast Saturday's concert, which will feature performances by dozens of musicians including Geldof, U2, Coldplay, Madonna, Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z, Maroon 5, Stevie Wonder, Faith Hill and Paul McCartney.

Twenty years ago, the couple were in London the night of a Live Aid concert in Wembley Stadium, and Wheeler said Geldof invited them to the show.

"I told him, "We don't go for that kind of music,' " Wheeler recalled. They watched a bit of the show on TV. Prince Charles and Diana, the princess of Wales, were in the audience.

"We found out we would have been sitting in the same section" as the royals, who were photographed with Geldof, Dick Wheeler said.

--Information from Times files was used in this report.

[Last modified June 29, 2005, 04:59:06]