Deceased June 4, 2020
View alumni profile (log in required)
Read obituary
In Memory
Albert Nathaniel Whiting, the last surviving member of the class of 1938, and the person who is believed to have been the oldest surviving Amherst alumni, passed away on June 4, 2020, in Columbia, Md. He was 102.
Albert Whiting was born to Hilda and Hezekiah Whiting on July 3, 1917, in Jersey City, N.J. After graduating from Amherst College, Albert earned a master’s degree from Fisk University and a doctorate degree in sociology from American University.
During World War II, Albert served his country as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He married Lottie Luck Whiting on June 10, 1950, in Danville, Va., and was the father of Dr. Brooke Whiting and his adopted daughter, Dr. Lila Ammons.
Dr. Whiting served as a professor of sociology at Bennett College and Atlanta University and as faculty dean at Morris Brown College. He also served as assistant dean of Morgan State College from 1957 to 1959, and then as dean from 1959 to 1967.
Dr. Whiting was elected president of North Carolina College at Durham on July 20, 1966, and assumed his duties in July 1967. Under his leadership, North Carolina College became North Carolina Central University (NCCU). During his tenure, first as president and beginning in 1972 as chancellor, North Carolina Central University added its fifth school, the School of Business in 1972, and increased enrollment. Upon his arrival, the institution’s enrollment was a little more than 3,000 students. By the time Dr. Whiting retired in 1983, the enrollment had grown to more than 5,000 students.
Albert Whiting was called the “builder” of North Carolina Central University. As president and chancellor, he oversaw substantial growth of the physical plant that included 12 buildings. His most ambitious project was the construction of a four-building physical education complex, as well as the construction of Eagleson Hall, the Alfonso Elder Student Union and the annex to James E. Shepard Memorial Library.
Chancellor Whiting initiated the first major fundraising campaign aimed at creating a university endowment for North Carolina Central University. He also helped to establish the NCCU Foundation, Inc. When Chancellor Whiting arrived at NCCU, the operating budget was $5.5 million. When he retired in 1983, it had risen to $34 million.
After retiring from NCCU, Chancellor Emeritus Whiting relocated to Columbia, Md. There he served on the University of Maryland’s Board of Regents and the Board of Directors for the University of Maryland’s hospital system.
However, in his retirement, he also maintained a strong connection to NCCU. In 1988, he returned to serve as the Founder’s Day speaker and, on Nov. 3, 1989, the Albert N. Whiting Criminal Justice Building was dedicated in his honor. On July 3, 2017, Chancellor Emeritus Whiting was recognized by the entire NCCU community on the centennial of his birth.
Albert Whiting’s wife, Lottie, passed away in 2004. He is survived by his daughters, Brooke and Lila.
As for his continuing connection with his college alma mater, Albert Nathaniel Whiting was the recipient of an honorary degree from Amherst College in 1968. Also, in the Spring 2012 edition of Amherst, as he was approaching his 95th birthday, the Class Notes reported that “Al Whiting has crafted a riveting memoir of his Amherst days as one of only two African-Americans in our class. The faculty treated him well, but he recalls fraternities shunning blacks and he became a founder of the independent Lord Jeffery Amherst Club. After college, as an army officer in WWII, and later, he and his family suffered repeated episodes of racial discrimination, which he narrates vividly. But he has warm memories of Religious Professor Jim Cleland, his faculty adviser. Years later, Al and Cleland, who became dean of the chapel at Duke University, enjoyed fellow membership in the Watauga Club, composed of distinguished North Carolinians.”
Everett “Skip” Jenkins ’75