Frank C. Whitmore Jr. '38
Deceased March 18, 2012
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Frank C. Whitmore Jr.
Fun and fossils.
In a memoir of his own, Frank, our distinguished paleontologist, chose that concept to describe his life. But his “fun” went beyond frolic to cultural delight and enrichment. He urged would-be scientists to embrace the humanities in college.
Frank said he loved medieval history, art appreciation and creative writing at Amherst while discovering his geology vocation in a one-on-one course with Prof. F. B. Loomis. By the end of his senior year, he had an article in the American Journal of Science about fossils in the Amherst collection. Graduate studies peaked with a 1942 Harvard doctorate.
His brilliant career had barely started when, in 1946, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian decoration. This came from geological intelligence he contributed while on Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s general staff. He worked in Japan and later in Korea, where his survey of the port of Inchon helped a crucial Allied landing in the Korean War.
Forty years with the U.S. Geological Survey, many of them on assignment to the Smithsonian Institution, took him to worldwide sites, digs and museums and brought him infinite honors and titles, not least his name ascribed to fossils, such as squalodon whitmorei (from a giant squalodont species.). He was a longtime lecturer at the College of William and Mary, to which he left his papers.
Frank died March 18, 2012, aged 96, barely a year after the death of his wife, Martha (Marty) Kremers, whom he met on a Smith College sleigh ride. Cared for by daughter Susan in their Maryland home, both had been in poor health for years. Legally blind, Frank kept reading and writing with an electronic magnifier. Besides Susan, he leaves another daughter, Katherine; twin sons, Geoffrey and John; five grandsons; six great-grandchildren; a brother, Mason, 94; and a sister, Marion, 86.
George Bria ’38