Robert Penick Whaling ’45

Robert Penick Whaling ’45, died July 22, 2006, at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. He lived his entire life in Winston-Salem. He graduated from R.J. Reynolds High School in 1940. He received a postgraduate degree from McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1941. He attended Davidson College before serving in the U.S. Army Infantry during World War II. After the war, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1948 with a B.A. in economics. While at Chapel Hill, Bob was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and played on the UNC golf team. Bob began his business career with P.H. Hanes Knitting Co., traveling the New England states and Canada. He then went to work for the Armrey Co., sponsor of the Armfield Plan, as a sales manager, and later became its president. He joined Pilot Insurance Agency in 1953 and became the senior managing partner in 1980. The agency was sold to Aon Risk Services in 1986, and he was chairman of the board until his retirement in 1991. Bob served as president of the Winston-Salem Association of Insurance Agents, and served three terms as a state director of the North Carolina Associates of Insurance Agents. He received the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter designation in 1961 and the Agent of the Year award in 1989. He served several terms on the board of the Chinqua-Penn Foundation and was a lifelong member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. He won the Forsyth Country Club Golf Championship in 1965. He worked with the Forsyth County Public Library, Boy Scouts, YMCA, Goodwill Industries, and others to locate and identify old photographs. He compiled a collection of pictures that are on display in many of these organizations. Survivors include his wife of fifty-four years, Mary Lu Wright Whaling, 18 Graylyn Place Ln., Winston-Salem, N.C. 27106; and their three children, a daughter, Cassandra Whaling Wierman, and son-in-law Mark Steven Wierman of Davidson; two sons, Robert Penick Whaling Jr. ’74 and daughter-in-law Betsy Butcher Whaling and Forrest Alexander Whaling and daughter-in-law Cynthia Thomas Whaling of Winston-Salem; six grandchildren, Mary Penn Whaling, John Alexander Whaling, Forrest Alexander Whaling Jr., Catherine Mathias Whaling, Robert Thomas Whaling and Austin Wright Whaling; a sister, Ann Whaling Long, of Nashville, Tenn.