John C. Whitaker, an aide to former President Richard M. Nixon who participated in the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, died of heart failure June 12 at Kensington Park Senior Living in Kensington.
The former Guilford resident was 89.
Born in Victoria, British Columbia, he was the son of Clifford Edmund Whitaker, an auto parts business owner, and Stella Neville.
In a 2003 University of Colorado interview, he recalled "the very pristine environment of Vancouver Island" he experienced as a child. He moved to Baltimore when he was 8.
"That was the first time I had ever seen grime. I had never seen a muddy stream in my life," he recalled.
He lived on Guilford's Whitfield Road and attended the Calvert School. He spent his summers at Camp Mooswa in Nova Scotia.
"He formed a bond with the world of nature, first in Vancouver and later in Eastern Canada," said a son, Robert Carroll Whitaker of Philadelphia. "It shaped his life, and it was reflected in the work he did professionally."
Dr. Whitaker was a 1944 graduate of Loyola High School. He received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, then a doctorate in geology from the Johns Hopkins University. He served in the Navy as a weatherman.
In 1958, he married Mary Elizabeth Bradley, who was a childhood neighbor. Family members said they had played together in Stony Run, the stream in North Baltimore.
Dr. Whitaker joined the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, was a field geologist with Standard Oil of California and later a vice president of International Aero Service Corp. In that capacity he did aerial photography and airborne geophysical surveys in developing countries.
While on a family vacation to Ocean City, Dr. Whitaker — who did not like to sit on the beach — began reading a book on then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon. He became impressed with the political figure.
"My father followed his heart," his son said. "He became an advance man in Nixon's 1960 presidential campaign and coordinated his schedule in the 1968 presidential campaign."
In a 1972 article in The Baltimore Sun, Dr. Whitaker recalled being in a cab with Mr. Nixon.
"The driver kept looking over at Nixon and back at the road and over again at Nixon," he recalled. "Finally the cabdriver said to Mr. Nixon: 'You look like that guy who ran for president and got beat by Kennedy — you know ... what's his name?' 'Yeah,' Mr. Nixon replied with a deadpan face. 'A lot of people tell me that.'"
Dr. Whitaker went on to join the White House staff after Mr. Nixon's election in 1968. He was named a secretary to the Cabinet, a position in which he served as liaison between the president and his Cabinet. He was director of a 1969 Nixon world tour, and he was on the aircraft carrier that recovered the Apollo 11 astronauts when they landed in the Pacific after their moon mission in July 1969.
About that time, Dr. Whitaker became a close adviser to President Nixon on the environment, and was a key participant in the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970.
"He coordinated White House policy for environment and natural resources issues, including Nixon's messages to Congress dealing with the environment, energy, rural development and farm policy," his son said.
In the University of Colorado interview, Dr. Whitaker recalled: "When Nixon and [Democratic candidate] Hubert Humphrey ran for president, neither one of them ever mentioned the environment. It just wasn't on the radar screen like the economy and Vietnam were. … Eighteen months later, a hurricane arrived called the environmental movement."
From 1973 to 1975, Dr. Whitaker was the undersecretary of the Department of Interior under presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford.
He later wrote of this period in a book, "Striking a Balance: Environment and Natural Resources Policy in the Nixon-Ford Years."
Afterward, he became a vice president of Union Camp Corp. and served on the board of the National Audubon Society.
He was also an adviser to President Ronald Reagan's Commission of Americans Outdoors and served on a panel that studied North Dakota's Garrison Diversion irrigation project.
He was the first executive director of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif.
Dr. Whitaker's elder sister, Patricia Anne Whitaker Waters, was the mother of filmmaker John Waters.
"We called him Uncle Buddy, and he always gave me incredible support in my career," Mr. Waters said. "He was hilarious. I loved to hear his inside stories about the Nixon reunions, and he loved to hear mine."
After retiring in 1994, Dr. Whitaker became board chair of Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit that repairs homes for low-income elderly residents. He also served the sick and elderly at the Gift of Peace House run by the Missionaries of Charity in Washington.
His wife of 43 years died in 2001.
A funeral Mass will be offered at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church, 3630 Quesada Street in Northwest Washington.
Survivors include four other sons, John Clifford Whitaker of Cincinnati, Stephen Bradley Whitaker of San Luis Obispo, Calif., William Burns Whitaker of Kensington and James Ford Whitaker of Pacific Palisades, Calif.; and 14 grandchildren.