WHITHAM, Walter Raymond

WHITHAM, DANA, WILLEY, EAGLES, FRANKLIN

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 10/26/2007 at 23:00:29

"The Fairfield Ledger", Wednesday, October 24, 2007, Page 8

WHITHAM, Walter Raymond -- Walter Raymond WHITHAM, 93, died Monday, Oct. 22, 2007, in Ithaca, N.Y.

A service will be at 9:15 a.m. Saturday at Higgins Home for Funerals in Plainfield, N.J., with the Rev. Robert Martin officiating at a 10 a.m. service. Interment will be at Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains.

Visitation will be from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.

Visit www.higginsfuneralhome.com to send online condolences.

Mr. WHITHAM was born Feb. 25, 1914, in Fairfield, the son of Raymond Arthur and Mildred Alda DANA WHITHAM. He married Dorothy J. WILLEY in 1945.

A fourth-generation nurseryman, Mr. WHITHAM studied landscape architecture and nursery management at Iowa State University from 1933 until 1936, when he left to become manager of Van Swearington Nurseries in Cleveland. In Cleveland, he was associated with landscape architect A.D. Taylor and saw his first public work ant the Great Lakes Exposition in 1937. As manager of the Irish Tree Company of Detroit 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.

In 1943 until the end of World War II, Mr. WHITHAM was employed by Republic Aviation, overseeing the inspection and production of the P-47 Thunderbolt, then a new airplane. 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 the firms for almost 50 years until his retirement in 1993.

Mr. WHITHAM was a member of the American Nurserymen Association, the American Society of Consulting Arborists, the New Jersey Shade Tree Federation and the Lions Club of Plainfield. He was a past president of the Arborist Association of New Jersey. He had served 16 years as chairman of the Plainfield Shade Tree Commission and was Certified Tree Expert of New Jersey license No. 63.

Mr. WHITHAM 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 World's Fair of 1939 and for his association with landscape architects Annette Hoyt Flanders, Charles Downing Lay and Gilmore Clark.

Survivors include his wife of Monmouth Beach, N.J.; four children, Pamela A. EAGLES and husband Michael of Forest Port, N.Y., Raymond G. of Reno, Nev., Kathleen D. FRANKLIN and husband Gerard of Moseley, Va., and Scott W. and wife Carol of Ithaca, N.Y.; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

He was predeceased by two brothers, Lloyd Arthur and Milton Irvin.

Copied with permission from The Fairfield Ledger, Inc.

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

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