Frederick Crocker Whitman ’36

Fred, a descendant of one of California's founding families and a resident of San Francisco for more than six decades, died Sept. 7, 2004. He was 90.

Fred was the great-grandson of railroad baron Charles Crocker, one of the state's "Big Four" economic powers in the mid-19th century along with Mark Hoptins, Leland Stanford, and Collis Huntington. His father was Malcolm D. Whitman, a three-time U.S. tennis champion.

Fred prepared at Phillips Exeter Academy. At Princeton he majored in political science and was on the varsity tennis team. He also received advanced degrees from Yale Law School and Harvard Business School.

During World War II he served as a Naval Intelligence officer in the Pacific theater, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander.

After the war he joined the St. Francis Investment Co., a Crocker family investment firm. He was president and chief executive officer until 1983 and chairman until 1985. After he retired, he devoted himself to the Whitman Institute, a foundation he started in 1985 to study and promote ways to help people to improve their thinking skills in relation to their everyday lives.

Fred is survived by a daughter, Tania Stepanian; sons Michael, Jonathan, and Kevin; a brother, Robert Henderson; and three grandchildren.

The Class of 1936