Background
He was born in New Albany, Nova Scotia and he died on a visit to Monte Carlo, Monaco.
He was born in New Albany, Nova Scotia and he died on a visit to Monte Carlo, Monaco.
He worked at The New York Times where he pioneered writing personalized obituaries. He is also known for his testimony before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. Whitman worked as a copy editor at the New York Herald Tribune from 1943-1951.
Whitman was hired as a copy editor by the New York Times in 1951.
Eventually he pioneered the personalized obituary and became known for his obituary writing. In the 1980s Whitman suffered a debilitating stroke which left him blind.
Two of those college students were John Gallagher and Marc Zirogiannis. Gallagher went on to author Black Ice: The Val James Story (2015), the biography of the National Hockey League"s first African-American player, Val James.
Zirogiannis went on to become lead correspondent of Tae Kwon Do Times Magazine, and the author of the novels, Pannino is Dead (2015) and The Suffering of Innocents (2015).
Subpoenaed by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee during its investigation of Communists in the media in November 1955, Whitman testified before the Senate in January 1956. Whitman was implicated in Winston Burdett"s testimony before the subcommittee in July 1955.
Whitman staunchly refused to name other people as Communists and he was indicted in December
1956 for contempt of Congress. Under tough questioning from subcommitte counsel J.G. Sourwine Whitman admitted his own involvement with the Communist Party from 1935-1948.
1979: George Polk Awards (Career Award).
He also told Sourwine he was a member of a cell with "perhaps a half-dozen members" at the New York Herald Tribune when he worked there.