John C. Whitaker, a schedule coordinator during the 1968 presidential campaign of Richard M. Nixon, a White House assistant during the Nixon presidency and later a leader in efforts to raise funds for the Nixon library and museum, died June 12 at a Kensington, Md., assisted-living facility. He was 89.
The cause was coronary disease, said a son, Robert Whitaker.
An environmental policy aide in the Nixon White House, Dr. Whitaker had a hand in the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. He was an undersecretary of the Interior in both the Nixon and Ford administrations.
In 1984, he was named executive director of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Archives Foundation. In that capacity, according to the Richard Nixon Foundation, he was considered the first executive director of the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.
Advertisement
He raised millions of dollars and oversaw negotiations concerning the location and construction of the library, which opened in Nixon’s home town of Yorba Linda, Calif., in 1990.
John Carroll Whitaker was born in Victoria, B.C., on Dec. 29, 1926. His father was a businessman. He moved to Baltimore as a child and graduated from Georgetown University in 1949. He received a doctorate in geology from Johns Hopkins University in 1953.
After serving in the Navy and working as a geologist for Standard Oil of California, Dr. Whitaker was a vice president of International Aero Services, a division of Litton Industries. He began working as an advance man in Nixon’s losing 1960 presidential campaign against John F. Kennedy.
Dr. Whitaker’s responsibilities in the 1968 election included coordinating the schedules of Nixon and his wife, Patricia, as well as vice presidential candidate Spiro T. Agnew.
Advertisement
In a 1994 article in the Los Angeles Times, Nixon’s 1968 campaign director John P. Sears was quoted as saying that Nixon had questioned why Dr. Whitaker had scheduled him for a Sunday church service during a busy period of the New Hampshire primary. Voters would expect it, Dr. Whitaker reportedly said.
Share this articleShareA week later, Dr. Whitaker again scheduled Nixon for a Sunday church service, this time in Wisconsin, giving the same reason. “No, John — we did that already,” Nixon was quoted as saying.
In the Nixon White House, Dr. Whitaker coordinated policy initiatives on the environment, energy and natural resources. In addition to the EPA, those efforts included setting aside land for public parks and the signing of the Clean Air Act in 1970 and Clean Water Act in 1972.
After Nixon resigned in 1974, Dr. Whitaker continued as undersecretary of the Interior in the presidency of Gerald R. Ford. Dr. Whitaker spent much of the 1980s working on the Nixon library and later served as vice president of the paper-products company Union Camp Corp., later acquired by International Paper. He retired in 1994 and was a resident of Chevy Chase, Md.
Advertisement
His wife of 43 years, Elizabeth Bradley Whitaker, died in 2001.
Survivors include five sons, John C. Whitaker of Cincinnati, Robert C. Whitaker of Philadelphia, Stephen B. Whitaker of San Luis Obispo, Calif., William B. Whitaker of Kensington, Md., and James F. Whitaker of Pacific Palisades, Calif; and 14 grandchildren.
Robert Whitaker said his father was close to his sister’s son, Baltimore filmmaker John Waters, who called him “Uncle Buddy.”
According to the Nixon Foundation, Dr. Whitaker was among the few aides to remain on board after Nixon’s 1960 loss to Kennedy, a time Nixon called his “wilderness years.”
In a 1972 interview with the Baltimore Sun, Dr. Whitaker remembered once being in a taxicab with Nixon during that time.
Said the taxi driver to Nixon, “You look like that guy who ran for president and got beat by Kennedy — you know ... what’s his name,” the taxi driver said.
Deadpanned Nixon, “Yeah ... a lot of people tell me that.”
Read more Washington Post obituaries
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLmwr8ClZqiamanCor7Inqpoop%2Bdu26vjLCfoqyRoLKzec2ir6imXZiurrzAop6nZZGesaZ5xKetoqqfo7qmutOao2anlpu2pLXApWSdoZWoeqLAjHFwaGpgZoNwfJZoZ2tnYGyEdYSWb5xma5aZfW59kJ5tZplma7NurcBvmmpwaGivd66QmKqtp6Kue6nAzKU%3D