Career
He was posthumously inducted into the Dayton Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2005. Whitney"s career at WHIO was multi-faceted, having worked as an occasional fill-in anchor, but also as a sportscaster and field journalist, usually covering stories of human interest. By the early 1970s he was permanently assigned as a weather specialist.
His sense of humor and folksy everyman approach to weather reporting made him a favorite with viewers.
As a weatherman, Whitney is best remembered for his timely warning on April 3, 1974 of an F5 tornado that went through Xenia, Ohio during the 1974 Super Outbreak. He specifically identified the Xenia neighborhood of Arrowhead as being directly in the tornado"s pathological
His report proved to be correct as Arrowhead was leveled by the twister. During the fall seasons, Whitney often referred to the unusually accurate Wooly Worm to predict the severity of an upcoming winter season.
His frequent reference to Wooly Worms led to the creation of a kids" fan club with the Wooly Worm as its mascot.
During the summer months Whitney also hosted Summertime "7x (the number in the title changed each year), a weekly late-night talk show which featured local talent and other television, movie and radio personalities making guest appearances. Gil Whitney Junior (b 1963), a filmmaker now living in Columbus, Ohio John, a filmmaker (b 1964) Jennifer (b 1967) Whitney died November 4, 1982, at the age of 42, of Hodgkin"s lymphoma.