Wendell Knight Whipple, Jr., of Oxford, FL, passed away on September 27, 2018 after a brief illness. He happily celebrated his 90th birthday less than two weeks earlier in the company of devoted family and friends. He was born in Dublin, Georgia on September14, 1928 to Wendell and Carolyn (Smith) Whipple.
Wendell spent most of his childhood in Perry GA. Perry remained a familial touchstone for him across his adult life which carried him to Ft. Valley GA, Savannah GA, Hartford CT, and Richmond VA. He returned to Perry in 1992 with his wife Betty Boler Ethridge, also of Perry. In 2013, he and Betty moved to Oxford FL.
Wendell graduated from Emory University in 1949 where he majored in Social Sciences. He was active in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, the Emory Chorus and Glee Club, and the Emory track team. While teaching in Douglasville, GA, he met and married Mary Eleanor Chambliss of Lithia Springs GA with whom he had three daughters. Wendell became a CLU (Chartered Life Underwriter) in Hartford, Connecticut with the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company and then moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1966 as a general agent. He later became a trust officer with F & M Bank (Sovran/Bank of America) in Richmond from which he retired in 1992.
Wendell possessed irrepressible curiosity about the world and enthusiasm for its endless marvels. He had a deep interest in politics and political discourse, history, social trends, and culture – and while wholeheartedly believing in America’s unique possibilities, he remained intensely concerned about greed and self-interest eroding democratic institutions and social values. He will be deeply missed for his acute sense of fairness, quiet loyalty and love of family. He was many things: a diligent businessman (active in the Jaycees and President of the Richmond Kiwanis Club), an artist (accepted into the Fine Arts undergraduate degree program of Virginia Commonwealth University at age 60!), a Republican, a Democrat, a carpenter and woodworker, a singer (Richmond Men’s Chorus and at-home baritone), an admirer of opera, folk and classical music, a harmonica player, a self-taught Sunday sailor, a lover of a good joke and pun, an innovative kite flyer and a world traveler who longed to master French. While wearing a suit Monday to Friday, he donned overalls and flannels at his beloved rural property in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He passed his great love for the place and the natural world to his children and grandchildren. He was a unique blend of traditional gentleman and admirer of iconoclasts and rebels. To the end of his life, reading the New York Times and watching evening news programs were essential daily rites. He loved a challenge, and the process of solving it was perhaps more central than the outcome.
In addition to cherished extended family members, Wendell is survived by his wife Betty Ethridge Whipple and her daughter and son-in-law Janis and Charles (Chuck) Tripp of Oxford FL; his brother and sister-in-law William and Elizabeth Whipple of Atlanta GA, and his sisters-in-law Louise Whipple of Staunton VA and Marge Whipple of Asheville, NC; his daughters Mary Brent Whipple (James Schwaber) of Arden DE, Barbara Beth Whipple (Paul Kazarov) of Staunton VA, Marsha Fay Knight (Leigh Selting) of Laramie WY; his grandchildren Thomas (and wife Charity) Bodily, Jessica Schwaber (and husband Panos Chrysanthopoulos), David Kazarov, Joel Schwaber, Clara Kazarov, Nicholas Selting and Gabriel Selting; and his great grandchildren Alexander Bodily and Carolyn Bodily. He is pre-deceased by his siblings Barbara Whipple Bitter, Earl Whipple, and Kenneth Whipple, as well as his stepson Marc Ethridge and former wife Mel Chambliss Whipple.
A celebration of his life will be held in Perry, GA on Saturday, December 29, 2018.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that those wishing to memorialize Wendell consider a donation to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (www.plannedparenthood.org) OR the Emory University Carolyn and Wendell Whipple Family Scholarship (Checks written to: Emory University w/ “Whipple Scholarship” in memo; mailed to Emory University Advancement and Alumni Engagement, Carolyn & Wendell Whipple Family Scholarship, 1762 Clifton Rd. NE, Atlanta GA 30322).
