Robert E. "Bob" Whittemore

Robert E. "Bob" Whittemore, a newspaperman in New York state for more than 60 years, died Wednesday, July 5, 2006, at his home in Oneonta after a long battle with cancer. He was 84.
Bob was born Sept. 28, 1921, in Utica, son of Ernest and Minnie (Monroe) Whittemore. The fam-ily moved to Ilion when he was three years old.
He married Betty Lou Sprague of Ilion in Savannah, Ga., on July 24, 1943.
He is survived by his wife, Betty Lou, of Oneonta; two daughters, Barbara (Joe) Stanton of Otego, Bethany (Terry) Vargason of Oswego, and a son, Brian (Jan Best) of Prior Lake, Minn. A younger son, Brad, and his wife, Charlene, died in a fire in 1979. He is also survived by six grand-children, Erik (Amy) Whittemore of Marietta, Ga., Lori (Matt) Mannina of Otego, Kevin Stanton of Otego, Ian (Amy) Whittemore of Kennesaw, Ga., Kyle Vargason of Hermosa Beach, Calif., and Derrick Vargason of Portland, Ore., and six great-grandchildren, Ashley and Sarah Mannina, Alex and Emily Whittemore, Kylee Stanton, and Nate Whittemore. He is also survived by a nephew, Jeffrey Whittemore of Dolgeville.
He was preceded in death by a brother, Harold Whittemore.
Bob was a veteran of World War II, having served with armored divisions in the European Theater, earning five battle stars.
He began his newspaper career with the Utica Observer Dispatch in 1938, covering high school football in the Mohawk Valley. He graduated from Ilion High School in 1939, worked for two years as an accountant at Remington Rand in Ilion and then enlisted in the Army after the outbreak of World War II.
Upon his return from the service, Bob returned to Remington Rand as an accountant and worked weekends covering sports for the Utica newspapers. He joined his brother, Harold, who had purchased the weekly Ilion Sentinel, in 1950. He wrote sports, worked as a printer, sold ad-vertising and did all the jobs which go with a weekly newspaper operation.
When the brothers decided to close The Sentinel, Bob became sports editor of the Oneonta Daily Star in 1954. He was transferred in 1957 to Endicott as editor of the former Endicott Daily Bulletin. He returned to The Oneonta Daily Star in 1961 and was sports editor and then news editor of that newspaper. Bob also worked on the copy desk at Utica newspapers, was editor of the Evening Sun in Norwich, worked on the sports staff at the Press in Binghamton and was edi-tor of the Palladium-Times in Oswego. He won several awards for sports writing, page layout and his column, "Rambling." He covered several major New York state stories over the years, stories such as the dramatic Appalachin gangland meeting near Endicott in 1957 and a train wreck near Oneonta in 1972.
Over the years, Bob worked as official scorer for the Oneonta Yankees, a part-time labor of love which he handled while working at other jobs such as executive director of the Oneonta Chamber of Commerce. During the 1980s, he led the way toward development of the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce.
Always active in the communities in which he lived, Bob was directly involved with the late Frederick Fay Swift in the creation of the Future for Oneonta Foundation. He retired as Secre-tary of FOF in 1992.
Sports played a major part in Bob's life, as he was active with the New York Yankees, the Oneonta Yankees and athletic contests involving his children, grandchildren, and great-granddaughters. In 1972, he received the "Patron of Athletics Award" from Oneonta High School.
He twice left the news scene for stints in the New York State Legislature, as legislative assis-tant to Senator Edwyn E. Mason of Hobart and Assemblyman Ray Chesbro of Oswego.
Bob, after retiring in 1992 from his job as sportscaster with WDOS in Oneonta, turned to writ-ing and wrote two books, "All We Had Was Us," the story of the Milford Macs baseball team; and "Baseball Town," a history of pro baseball in Oneonta, featuring the Oneonta Yankees. Both sold out. He also produced three works of fiction, which have not yet been published.
Bob was a member of a very special group called The Beavers, friends since high school, and is survived by Beavers Frank Hart, Kink Steber, William Fay, Jack Berkemeyer, and Lynn Coyle and was preceded in death by Tom Lester and Vernon Cool.
Funeral services will be at 5 p.m. Sunday, July 9, at the Lewis, Hurly and Pietrobono Funeral Home, 51 Dietz St., Oneonta, with a calling hour beginning at 4 p.m.
Condolences may be made to the family online at www.lhpfuneralhome.com.
Burial will be later, at the convenience of the family.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Catskill Area Hospice and Palliative Care, 1 Birchwood Drive, Oneonta NY 13820, or a charity of your choice.