At the Loomis School in Windsor, Conn., he received the Batchelder Prize and was president of the Student Council. At Princeton he majored in English, writing his senior thesis on “Civil War Novelists,” and joined Ivy Club. His special interests included hunting and fishing.
John served as a first lieutenant in the Marines from 1954 to 1958. In 1969, after travel in the Far East and Europe and a short time in sales with Scott Paper, he worked in the commercial and industrial mortgage department of the W.C. Pinkard Co. and launched a successful career in waterfront development. After building the first condominiums in Ocean City, Md., with his friend Daniel Trimper VI, he went on to build many oceanfront townhouses and oceanfront buildings. Among these were Beachwalk, Beach Place North, Thirteen on the Beach, Beachloft, and Beachmark. He built the first “high rise” in Ocean City, High Point South, then High Point North and Pyramid. In West Ocean City he developed the subdivision he named Captain’s Hill. He also built the original Salisbury School in Salisbury, Md.
John was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Berlin, Md., and an active sport fisherman on his boatthe Curlew.
He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Gail Jarvis Whaley; son John Staton Whaley III; and grandchildren Staton Alexander Whaley and Kendall Suzanne Whaley.