Bradley Jay Wheeler was born in Los Angeles, California on 6 March 1972 to Allen B. Wheeler and Patricia Gould. Brad has two elder brothers, Allen Jr. and Todd. He grew up in Pasadena, California, and attended High Point Academy through 8th grade. He then attended St. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge, graduating in 1991. While attending St. Francis, he was part of the swimming and soccer teams. He was also an Eagle Scout and marched in the 1991 Tournament of Roses Parade.

While still attending High Point, Brad developed an enthusiastic interest in working as a mobile disc jockey and began being mentored in that profession by a family friend who was an established professional DJ. His skills developed quickly, and in 1991 he and two partners founded a mobile DJ entertainment company and entertained at weddings, corporate events, school functions, and house parties at venues all over the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, and San Bernardino. He also began working concurrently for Showbiz Pizza Time, Inc., owner of Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater restaurants. He was quickly promoted to supervisor, and within a couple of years was promoted to manager and transferred to the San Francisco Bay Area. Before long, Brad was a general manager and was in charge of opening, staffing, and training new locations.

At this point, I'd like to give one example of the type of person Brad was. Before Brad and I became best friends, while he was still kind of a protégé to me, I was involved in a traffic collision when Brad was 16 years old. Before undergoing the first surgical procedure, I was paralyzed from the waist down for three days. Word got out that I needed blood donors for the operation, so Brad convinced another friend his age to join him in lying about their ages and donating blood for me. I don't even know if they were the same blood type as me, but my gratitude for that selfless act was overflowing.

While opening a new Chuck E. Cheese's location, Brad met Sandi Jensen and began courting her. She made him a better person, and his love and devotion for her was an inspiration to me. They were married for time and all eternity in the Los Angeles Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Around that time Brad changed careers and began applying his abilities to the mortgage banking field, and at the time of his passing he was a regional vice president for a mortgage bank.

Brad is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and during mortality he served in The Church in various positions, including ward Young Men president, ward assistant clerk for finances, scoutmaster, bishop's second counselor, and bishop's first counselor.

In 2016 Brad underwent chemotherapy treatment for cancer. After a few months of treatment he was deemed to be cancer-free, but during treatment, he lost all of his hair, as people do under such circumstances. In a show of support, his brother Todd challenged their other brother, Allen, and Brad's best friend, Terry, to completely shave their heads, which all three of them did.

A year later, one evening in June, Brad was with his wife and his eldest daughter in their kitchen at home, when an embolism suddenly traveled from his lung to his brain, rendering him unconscious. He was transported to a hospital, and never having regained consciousness, the spirit of my best friend, Brad, left its mortal frame a few hours later. He was 45 years old.

He is survived by his wonderful wife, Sandi, his daughter Lacey, sons Logan and Cooper, and daughter Addison, his parents, his brother Allen and wife Amy, his brother Todd and wife Ruby, four nieces, and two nephews.