Henry Hudson Whiting (July 20, 1923 in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

– September 17, 2012) was a member of the

Supreme Court of Virginia The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrativ ...

Early and family life

One of eight children born to Lt. Col. Edgar Mason Whiting and Helen Hudson Whiting. His godfather was General

George S. Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (11 November 1885 – 21 December 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, then the Third Army in France and Germany after the Alli ...

, an old friend of Lt. Col. Whiting's from military days. After numerous moves due to his father's military postings, Whiting's family moved in 1934 to

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the northwesternmost Administrative divisions of Virginia#Independent cities, independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Frederick County, Virginia, Frederi ...

, where he was based the remainder of his life. He graduated from

John Handley High School John Handley High School (usually referred to as JHHS) is an endowed public high school located in the city of Winchester, Virginia. It is a part of Winchester Public Schools. It was founded by a grant from Judge John Handley, hence the schoo ...

and attended

Virginia Polytechnic Institute The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

for one year.

World War II officer

Whiting enlisted in the US Army shortly after the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After attending Officer Candidate School (OCS), he received a commission as second lieutenant and initially trained officers at the OCS in

Ft. Knox, Kentucky Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository (also known as Fort Knox), which is used to house a larg ...

. In late 1944 he deployed to Europe as a first lieutenant in charge of a reconnaissance platoon. He witnessed the end of the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive or Unternehmen Die Wacht am Rhein, Wacht am Rhein, was the last major German Offensive (military), offensive Military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western ...

after the tide had turned in favor of the Allies and also was present during the fight for the

bridge at Remagen The Ludendorff Bridge, also known as the Bridge at Remagen, was a bridge across the river Rhine in Germany which was captured by United States Army forces in early March 1945 during the Battle of Remagen, in the closing weeks of World War II ...

. During the waning days of the war, he also briefly served as an observer on the staff of General Patton. After

VE Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations ...

, Whiting served with the Army of Occupation in Europe until May 1946. During this time, he acted as counsel defending minor courts-martial cases and there developed a strong, lifelong interest in the law.

Legal education

Upon his discharge, Whiting entered the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

and with the help of

GI Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, but the te ...

benefits, graduated from law school in 1949. He was editor of the Law Review, first in his class and was elected as a member of The Order of the Coif and the

Raven Society The Raven Society is an honor society at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1904 by William McCully James who named it in honor of the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, who attended the University of Virginia in 182 ...

Personal life

Whiting married Helen Patricia Stephenson (1928–1980) of

in 1953; they divorced in 1971. They had two children, Brian and John. He attended the First Presbyterian Church, where he taught adult and teen Sunday School classes for a number of years.

Career

Admitted to the Virginia bar, Whiting returned to Winchester and entered into the practice of law with J. Sloan Kuykendall, longtime Secretary of the Virginia Board of Law Examiners. They were joined later by Lewis Costello and the firm, Kuykendall, Whiting and Costello became the largest law firm in Winchester. Eventually the firm opened a branch office in

Leesburg, Virginia Leesburg is a town in and the county seat of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. It is part of both the Northern Virginia region of the state and the Washington metropolitan area, including Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. European se ...

Judicial career

After 31 years in private legal practice, Whiting was appointed in 1980 to the 26th Judicial Circuit of Virginia by Gov. John N. Dalton, and the Virginia General Assembly confirmed him as a circuit court judge. In 1987, the General Assembly elected Whiting to serve on the

, following the retirement of Justice George M. Cochran. Whiting thus became the first member of the

from the Winchester-Frederick County area in over 100 years. A major ruling unanimously handed down by the Virginia Supreme Court during Whiting's tenure was Timothy W. Spencer v Commonwealth, which was the first state supreme court ruling on the admissibility of

DNA profiling DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting and genetic fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is cal ...

. The Court's ruling on the admissibility of DNA evidence was later upheld at the federal appeals level and by the U.S. Supreme Court. Whiting served on the Court until he stepped down to Senior (semi-retired) status in 1995. Justice Whiting continued to serve the Court as a Senior Justice until 2002. During his tenure, Justice Whiting authored 235 opinions for the Court. To honor his service, the Supreme Court of Virginia convened a special session in Winchester, its first ever there, on July 17, 2002.Justice Whiting steps down from senior status « Virginia Lawyers Weekly. (2002, July 29). Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved August 28, 2010, from http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2002/07/29/justice-whiting-steps-down-from-senior-status/?nomobile

Death and legacy

Judge Whiting died in 2012. Three years earlier, on January 30, 2009, his portrait was presented to the Frederick-Winchester Judicial Center in a special ceremony sponsored by the Frederick Winchester Bar Association.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whiting, Henry H. 1923 births 2012 deaths Whiting, Henry Hudson Virginia lawyers 20th-century Virginia state court judges 20th-century American lawyers Virginia circuit court judges