Herman Whiton was a two-time Olympic gold medal winner in the 6 Meter Class in 1948 and 1952.  Interestingly, he raced with completely different crew in his two Olympic quests. At the age of 22 he won the 6 Meter World Championship in 1924. This favorable result inspired him to go for the Olympic Games.  In 1959 Whiton won the International One Design Championship in Bermuda.  The New York Times reported on Whiton’s clever sailing in an international regatta in 1966, “Whiton was the last to get started in the international race, having to circle the flag at the end of the (starting) line after crossing before the cannon sounded, but he led at every mark.”

Whiton competed in the 1928 Olympics in the 6 Meter Class in a boat named Frieda (named after his mother). He finished in sixth place that year. The sailing venue for the 1948 Olympics was held in Torbay on the south coast of England, and Whiton participated in his boat named Llanoria.  His crew included Alfred Loomis, James Weeks, James Smith and Michael Mooney.  Whiton handily won the gold medal, with eight countries competing.  The American crew finished the seven races with a 4-1-1-3-8-1-2 series.  Four years later, Whiton represented the United States again with his 6 Meter Llanoria, this time with a different crew.  The 1952 squad included Eric Ridder, Julian Roosevelt, John Morgan and Everd Endt.  Whiton’s wife Emelyn was an alternate crew member but did not compete in a race. The Americans finished 4-9-1-1-8-3-1, earning the crew a gold medal.

Whiton did most of his sailing out of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club on Oyster Bay, N.Y. and was a long-time member of the New York Yacht Club (1927-1967). As a youngster he attended the St. Paul School in Concord, New Hampshire and later majored in physics at Princeton University where he was on the crew team.  After graduating from college in 1926 he went to work for the Union Sulphur and Oil Company founded by his grandfather, Herman Frasch. Whiton divided his time living at a home on Madison Avenue in New York City and in Cove Neck, Long Island, N.Y. Mr.  Grandfather Frasch invented a unique way to mine underground Sulphur deposits in Louisiana and Texas and made a fortune.  Whiton was promoted to president of the company, and eventually Chair of the Board of Directors. The company became a division of Allied Chemical Corporation.

In 1959, Herman Whiton created a sailing program to help up-and-coming sailors to improve their skills.  He had a mission to “promote international understanding through an exchange program for sailors from different countries,”according to his obituary in the New York Times.  His project was called The Sailing Facility.  He acquired eight IODs for four-day symposiums during the summer months. Whiton was one of several prominent sailors who gave lectures to the international roster of sailors.  He remarked at the time, “Sailors often spend their lives just compounding their own mistakes and never getting better.”  That statement is certainly true today.  In his later years, he was a generous donor to the United States Olympic Sailing Team through his Whiton Foundation.

~ Gary Jobson