Obituary of Walter Whitham

Jackson: Walter Raymond (W. R.) Whitham, aged 93, passed away on Monday October 22, 2007 in Ithaca, New York. He was born on February 25, 1914, in Fairfield Iowa, son of Raymond Arthur and Mildred Alda (Dana) Whitham. He was predeceased by his brothers, Lloyd Arthur and Milton Irvin. A fourth-generation nurseryman, Mr. Whitham studied landscape architecture and nursery management at Iowa State University from 1933 until 1936, leaving to accept the position of manager of Van Swearington Nurseries, in Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland he was associated with the noted landscape architect A.D. Taylor, and saw his first public work at the Great Lakes Exposition in 1937. As manager of the Irish Tree Company of Detroit, Michigan in 1938, his design projects included the Henry Ford residence in Dearborn, and the Dodge residence in Detroit. From 1939 until 1943, Mr. Whitham was manager of the Bagatelle Nursery in Huntington, Long Island. During that time his New York design work included projects for the Tiffany family and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. in Oyster Bay, the Jacob Astor family in Port Washington, William Randolph Hearst in Sands Point, the Kahn Estate in Huntington and Madame de Brabant in Centerport. He was especially proud of his design work for President Franklin D. and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in Hyde Park, his planting design for the British and Japanese pavilions for the Worlds Fair of 1939, and for his association with such seminal landscape architects as Annette Hoyt Flanders, Charles Downing Lay and Gilmore Clark. In 1943 until the end of World War Two, Mr. Whitham was employed by Republic Aviation, overseeing the inspection and production of the P-47 Thunderbolt, then a new airplane which he saw become a major force in the ongoing war. In 1945 he married Miss Dorothy J. Willey of Plainfield, New Jersey, daughter of George Harvey F. and Ethel Maud (Winsper) Willey. In 1946 he established the landscape design firm of W.R. Whitham Inc., and worked with his brother Lloyd to establish a Plainfield branch of Whitham Nurseries, founded as Fairfield Nursery by his great grandfather James Monroe Whitham in 1863. Mr. Whitham remained president of these firms for almost fifty years until his retirement in 1993. Along with hundreds of individual residences, corporations, municipalities, schools and parks, his design clients during these years included the J.P. Stevens estate and the Hillside Cemetery in Plainfield and the American Cyanamid Corporation of Bound Brook. Mr. Whitham was a member of the American Nurserymen Association, the American Society of Consulting Arborists, the New Jersey Shade Tree Federation and past president of the Arborist Association of New Jersey and the Lions Club of Plainfield. He served for 16 years as chairman of the Plainfield Shade Tree Commission and was Certified Tree Expert of New Jersey license #63. Mr. Whitham cared deeply about trees and shrubs and soil and stone, and had an easy, passionate and intuitive eye for the created landscape. His friends and family will remember his great and joyous appetite for life, his love of dogs and horses, his full-bodied laugh, and his strong sense of decency and character and playful fun. Mr. Whitham is survived by his wife of 62 years, who resides in Monmouth Beach, New Jersey. He is also survived by his four children, Pamela A. (Michael) Eagles of Forest Port, New York, Dr. Raymond G. of Reno, Nevada, Kathleen D. (Gerard) Franklin of Moseley, Virginia, Scott W. (Carol) of Ithaca, New York, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at 9:15 am on Saturday October 27th, 2007 at Higgins Home Funerals 209 West Eighth St. Plainfield NJ followed by a 10:00 am funeral service with Rev. Robert Martin officiating. Interment will be held at Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains. The visitation will be on Friday from 2-4 and 7-9 pm at the funeral home.