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| John Whitaker
participated in several Nixon Legacy Forums in
recent years, giving insight on the
administration's environmental initiatives.
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REMEMBERING
JOHN WHITAKER
John C. Whitaker, a senior
environmental policy aide to President Nixon and
longtime friend of the Richard Nixon Foundation
passed away June 12, 2016. He was
89.
John was an early supporter, friend
and advisor to Richard Nixon, beginning with his
time as an advance man on the 1960 presidential
campaign.
Following Nixon’s loss in 1960,
John was one of the few aides to remain onboard
during the time that Nixon called his
“wilderness years.” When Nixon made his
successful run at the presidency in 1968, John
worked full time managing the schedules of
Richard and Pat Nixon, vice presidential
candidate Spiro Agnew and the campaign
surrogates.
In the months following the
victorious election in 1968, president-elect
Nixon appointed Whitaker as Secretary to the
Cabinet, where he served for the first several
months of the administration.
After
President Nixon reorganized the Executive Branch
during the first year of his presidency, he
tapped John – a career geologist with a Ph.D.
from Johns Hopkins, as Deputy Assistant to the
President for Domestic Affairs. In this role,
John coordinated the groundbreaking Nixon policy
initiatives on the environment, energy and
natural resources.
The work of that group
brought about, among many environment-related
accomplishments, the creation of the EPA, the
setting aside 700,000,000 acres of land for
public parks and the signing of the Clean Water
and Clean Air acts. To this day, Richard Nixon
is considered, along with Theodore Roosevelt and
Jimmy Carter, among America’s “greenest”
presidents. The Nixon administration’s
contributions were in no small part the result
of the work of the Domestic Council and John
Whitaker.
Following his service on the
Domestic Council, John moved into the role of
Under Secretary of the Interior, where he served
into the Ford administration. After his time in
the Nixon and Ford administrations, he was vice
president of Union Camp Corporation and served
as an advisor on President Reagan's Commission
on Americans Outdoors. In the 1980s, he returned
to work for his old boss, Richard Nixon, as the
first executive director of the Nixon Library --
in the time before there was an actual Nixon
Library.
As director, he raised millions
of dollars to build the Library and hired the
original architect, before handing the reigns
over to Hugh Hewitt, who officially opened the
Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in
1990.
John was chairman of the board, and
an active member, of Rebuilding Together, a
national non-profit organization, that repairs
homes for low-income elderly citizens.
In
recent years, he remained active with the
Richard Nixon Foundation, participating in two
Nixon Legacy Forums on the administration’s
environmental policies, marking the 20th
anniversary of the dedication of the Nixon
Library in 2010.
“Through many decades,
John remained a loyal friend to the President
and this Foundation,” said Foundation Chairman
Ron Walker. “He was a remarkable man of great
sincerity, great accomplishment, and great
faith,” Walker added.
John continued to
attend the annual DC reunion of the Nixon
administration officials each November. That
group of friends - among many others - will miss
him dearly.
His wife of 43 years, the
former Mary Elizabeth Bradley, passed in 2001.
Survivors include his five sons, John Clifford
of Cincinnati, Ohio, Robert Carroll of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Stephen Bradley of
San Luis Obispo, California, William Burns of
Kensington, Maryland, and James Ford of Pacific
Palisades, California, along with fourteen
grandchildren.
A funeral mass
will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday June 18,
2016 at the Shrine of the Most Blessed
Sacrament, 3630 Quesada Street, NW, Washington,
DC 20015.
A visitation
at the church, beginning at 10 a.m., will
precede the funeral. Following the funeral, a
private burial will be held at St. Mark's
Episcopal Church in Perryville,
Maryland.
Memorial contributions
will be gratefully received at Rebuilding
Together, 1899 L Street NW, Suite 1000,
Washington, DC 20036; Missionaries of Charity,
2800 Otis St NE, Washington, DC 20018; and
Washington Jesuit Academy, 900 Varnum St NE,
Washington, DC 20017.
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