Obituary: Joshua Clyde Whetzel Jr. / Tireless force for improving environment, science center
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Joshua Whetzel Jr. 2001
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Joshua Clyde Whetzel Jr., a visionary scientist and conservationist who raised funds to build the Carnegie Science Center, dramatically increased the number of visitors to Fallingwater, and established the first leg of the Great Allegheny Passage hiking and biking trail, died Tuesday at his Harbor's Edge home in Delray Beach, Fla. He was 90.
A nature lover who was enthralled as a teenager with the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park on a family road trip, he went on to lead the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, where he spearheaded the purchase of large tracts of land in Pennsylvania for conservation.
"He was one of the unsung heroes of the renaissance of Pittsburgh. He had an ability to see the future of land and water conservation," said John Oliver, who succeeded Mr. Whetzel as president of the conservancy.
Formerly of Fox Chapel and Shadyside, Mr. Whetzel grew up in Squirrel Hill and studied chemistry at Mellon Institute, where he met his future wife, Farley Walton, in one of the labs.
The eldest of three children, he attended Shadyside Academy for two years and then transferred to Riverside Military Academy. A 1943 graduate of Virginia Military Institute, he was a second lieutenant with an Army artillery division during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
In the 1950s, he ran Allegheny Refining Co., a Verona-based business that turned palm oil into an edible coating for aluminum foil and tin plate inside cans. He sold the company in the 1960s.
His son, Joshua Whetzel III, of Laughlintown, Westmoreland County, said his father was an optimistic risk taker who lived his conservation ethic by taking his family on a camping trip despite a serious lack of outdoors experience.
"In the 1960s, camping was a real adventure. With only Army surplus backboards, sleeping bags, rubber raincoats, scratchy wool pants, freeze-dried food and fishing gear," Joshua Whetzel III recalled, "we ventured into the Wind River wilderness" in Wyoming.
Mr. Whetzel was 47 in 1968 when he moved his family to Washington, D.C., to be treasurer of the Conservation Foundation, a job that taught him about America's nascent environmental movement. He returned to Pittsburgh in 1969 and became president of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy for nearly a decade. He stepped down as president in 1978 but chaired the organization's board from that year through 1995.
"He was an extraordinary and dynamic leader and a wonderful mentor, not just to me but to everyone who worked with him. He was very strategic, an excellent planner and very persistent," said Cynthia Carrow, vice president of government and community relations for the conservancy who worked with him for 22 years.
"He assembled 9,500 acres of wild mountain lands along the west slope of Laurel Ridge in Westmoreland and Somerset counties. We called it the mountain streams project. This included a 3,000-acre natural area which was called Roaring Run," Ms. Carrow said, adding that the land was given to Pennsylvania. Part of it is in Forbes State Forest.
In the early 1970s, when the Western Maryland railroad shut down, "Josh recognized the value of these long, linear corridors of green space," she said.
The conservancy acquired the railroad's right of ways near Ohiopyle and gave the 25-mile corridor, used for hiking and biking, to Pennsylvania. That trail, which runs from Connellsville to Confluence, became the first segment of the Great Allegheny Passage, which now links Pittsburgh to Washington D.C.
In the mid-1970s, at the urging of Pittsburgh Press outdoor writer Roger Latham, the conservancy began buying land around the Clarion River, eventually acquiring 12,000 acres and deeding much of it to the Allegheny National Forest.
The conservancy also bought 11,000 acres east of State College, turning it into a game reserve called Cherry Run.
At Fallingwater, Mr. Whetzel persuaded Edgar Kaufmann Jr., heir to the fortune of one of the department store founders, to help develop educational programs and preservation protocols at the family's former weekend retreat.
Mr. Whetzel saw the value of protecting Fallingwater's watershed, including the stream called Bear Run. His efforts increased the conservancy's holdings from 1,500 acres to around 5,000 acres.
Ron Baillie, co-director of the Carnegie Science Center, said Mr. Whetzel played a key role in establishing it because he was a formidable fundraiser and consensus builder. He wanted to expand the programming at the former Buhl Science Center that was located on the North Side near Allegheny Center.
"Mayor [Richard] Caliguiri came to him and had this vision for the development of the North Shore. If the city could provide the land, would the science center consider building a new center and become an anchor that would attract other riverfront development? By the mid-1980s, they were well under way, planning and designing with architects," Mr. Baillie said, adding that the science center opened in 1991.
"I don't know that he ever took a salary. This was just a passion for him. He just gave back a lot and was just tireless once he was committed," Mr. Baillie said.
Besides his wife and son, Mr. Whetzel is survived by a daughter, Rachel Walton Casselman of Yarmouth, Maine, and two other sons, Thomas Porter Whetzel of Sacramento, Calif., and William Mellon Whetzel of Philadelphia.
Services were private; a memorial service will be held in Pittsburgh at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy or Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
First Published January 28, 2012 12:00 am
