November 16, 2008       

ADAMS, N.Y.  —  Donald C. Whiteman, 93, of 6 North Park St., succumbed on Nov. 16, at his home after a long illness. 

A memorial service will be held 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, at Adams Village Baptist Church on East Church Street in Adams with Rev. N. "Bud" Masters officiating. Friends will be received at the church from 10 a.m. preceding the service. A Lions memorial service will be conducted by the South Jefferson Lions Club at 10:45 a.m. Burial will be private at the convenience of the family. Arrangements are with the Piddock Funeral Home, Adams. 

Born Sept. 12, 1915, in Clarksburg, West Virginia, the son of Achilles M. and Ella P. Whiteman, he attended various schools in West Virginia before graduating in 1934 from Homer Academy in Homer, N.Y.

Mr. Whiteman, after working his way through college, graduated from the School of Agriculture at Cornell University in 1939. Following graduation, he escorted a train carrying award winning Brown Swiss Cattle to the world’s largest cattle show in San Francisco. Later he served as a gunnery instructor for B 52s during World War II. He became an assistant County Agent in Delaware County, New York after the war. 

He married Betty MacElroy in 1947 at First Presbyterian Church in Delhi in a ceremony conducted by Rev. Thomas Carlisle who later served in Watertown. 

Following completion of his master’s degree from the State University of Colorado in Fort Collins, and the birth of their son, Robert C.,, the Whitemans returned to Walton, N.Y., and built a ranch style home on the banks of the Delaware River. 

The couple moved to Adams in 1955 where they have resided ever since. 

Mr. Whiteman was a manager with the New York Artificial Breeders Cooperative for many years, later becoming an award winning salesman at the Blue Seal Feeds Company from which he retired in 1980.

He was active in the Adams and Jefferson County Community. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was a respected judge at many cattle shows throughout the region including the New York State Fair. He served on the Adams School Board voting to proceed with the merger with Adams Center School, laying the foundation for the creation of the South Jefferson Central School. He was an active Cornell University alumnus, and was chairman of the first million dollar fundraising drive for the School of Agriculture in the late 1960s. 

He was also active in the Lions Club movement and served as the president of the Adams chapter. He and Mrs. Whiteman attended several national and international Lions Conventions including one which required traveling to Australia and another to Hawaii. He was as well the top sales person for light bulbs and Easter rabbits for the club’s charity work on behalf of the blind and seeing impaired. 

Mr. and Mrs. Whiteman were active travelers, making several extensive cross country camping trips throughout the lower 48 states. Twice they drove the Al-Can Highway to Alaska in their Volkswagen Camper. On their second trip the Whitemans spent six week as managers of Camp Bingle near the foot of Mount McKinley.

Mr. Whiteman was a leader of the Boy Scout Troop 37 and was admitted to the Order of Arrow at Camp Portaferry by the Jefferson-Lewis Boy Scout Association. He led several groups of Adams area scouts to Camp Portaferry and once organized a fifty mile bike ride from Adams to Selkirk Shores State Park and back for twenty boys and four adult leaders. In addition to helping several boys achieve their Eagle Scout Awards as well. Mr. Whiteman was awarded the Silver Beaver award. 

In addition, he was past chairman of the South Jefferson United Fund in 1973 and 1974. He was member of the Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Association’s executive committee, a member of the Watertown Chapter of SCORE, as well as serving as president of the Leuze-Reardon Scholarship Fund at South Jefferson Central School. 

He and Mrs. Whiteman were awarded a joint Citizen of the Year Award by the Adams Rotary Club in 1971 and he was again cited for his outstanding Community Service by the Adams Arbor Day Committee. He was an advocate for the re-establishment of the native American Chestnut tree, and promoted the distribution of a blight resistant variety developed at Cornell. 

Mr. Whiteman was an enthusiastic milk bottle collector and at one point his collection contained nearly fifteen hundred bottles of all sizes and for all purposes of preserving and selling dairy products. His bottle collecting led to his active participation at the Northern New Your Agricultural Museum at Stone Mills where he worked on various historic preservation activities, demonstrated the art of making butter and other dairy products, as well as actively fundraising and serving on the Museum’s Board of Directors. 

In other charitable works, Mr. and Mrs. Whiteman enjoyed "ringing the bell" for the Salvation Army and delivering meals on wheels. He also served as a volunteer income tax preparer for the elderly and impaired individuals.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Whiteman is survived by their son Robert C. and his wife, Janis D. Griggs, of Oak Hill, Virginia; two granddaughters: Ellen G. Whiteman of Arlington, Virginia and Elizabeth G. Woodruff and her husband Blake Woodruff of High Point, North Carolina. Their son, Elias P. Woodruff is Mr. Whiteman’s great grandson. Two nephews and a niece also survive.

Instead of flowers, the family warmly urges memorial gifts be sent in Mr. Whiteman's memory to any of the following: The Adams Village Baptist Church, East Church Street, Adams, NY 13605; The Northern New York Agricultural Museum c/o Mrs. M. Rainer, 34312 Rt. 180, LaFargeville, New York; The Don and Betty Whiteman Scholarship Fund, c/o Jefferson Community College, Watertown, NY 13601; or Cornell University c/o Sharon Detzer, 4101 Pine Hollow Road, Lock, NY 13902.






Information provided by Piddock Funeral Home, Adams, and Newzjunky.com, Watertown.