Arthur Wheelock grew up in Hingham, Massachusetts, and attended Dartmouth College in 1914, and then the Andover Theological Seminary in 1917. He was ordained a Church of Christ Congregational minister on October 14, 1917, in the Church of Christ in Bedford, Massachusetts, where he subsequently served as pastor. Early in World War I he went overseas as a Y.M.C.A. Secretary and served with the Goyer du Soldat in France for six months. In June 1918 he was commissioned a chaplain with the U.S. ArmyÕs 23d Infantry Regiment, 2d Division, American Expeditionary Forces. After the war he returned to the Bedford church, but in 1920 he accepted the call to the Free Christian Church of Andover, which he served until 1924. He then became pastor of the Congregational Church in Willimantle, Connecticut, for five years, before moving to White Plains, New York, as pastor of the Church in the Highlands, which he served for fifteen years.