Dr. Alicia Margarita Cabán~Wheeler

Dr. Alicia Margarita Caban-Wheeler, 88, passed away on 13 July, 2026 after a long fight with dementia. Although she lost the war, she won many battles with her adversary, and continued fighting long past where many others would have laid down their swords.

She was born in New York, New York to parents Rose Mary Campezino, and Louis Caban. She spent most of her early childhood in New Jersey, before moving to Mexico as a young teen and then back to New Jersey and graduated high school in 1956 at Passaic Valley High School

She achieved her Masters degree at Georgia State University and it is there working at a community crisis center where she met her second husband and soulmate, William (Bill) H Wheeler Jr. There are not many people who would intimidate a 6'2", 230lb recent veteran, but Alicia's indomitable spirit and backbone of carbon steel managed to do so. They were married in 1973, and nobody who saw them together could doubt that they were made for each other.

In 1978, she began attendance at Harvard School of Education, and graduated in 1982 with a Doctoral Thesis on the failures of Massachusetts’ Equal Opportunity Educational policies. Lifting the voices of the unheard and the marginalized (including her own) was a lifelong project and her passion and she continuously fought against injustice wherever she found it.

In the late 1980’s, she moved to Athens, Georgia, and began to create sculpture and poetry in order to make sense of the experiences in her life and share them with the world. She filled her house with art, and contributed to several galleries both local and out of state. She never stopped trying to right wrongs wherever she found them, and donated regularly to women's shelters and charities.

She is survived by her husband Bill, her brothers George and James, her daughter Rosemary, and her sons Arthur and Colin. She is also survived by her 8 grandchildren (Dyana, April, Chris, Ashley, Rhiannon, Jaycob, Kieran, and Lewy) and her 5 great-grandchildren (Christian, Noah, Lyla, Asher, and Levi). She is preceded in death by her parents, her brother John, and her son Bart.

Services will be held in August at the Unitarian University Fellowship of Athens. In leiu of flowers, the family asks you to donate to Project Safe, a charity to end domestic violence through crisis intervention, ongoing supportive services, systems change advocacy, and prevention and education.

Project Safe Donation Link