Whitney, I’m Sorry They Named Whitney After You
April 13, 2017
It seems like every UW-L student has an opinion on the dining hall, Whitney. This opinion is shown through profanity-filled nicknames or phrases. However, Whitney was someone’s name and legacy that should grace more than a mere dining hall.
Clayton A. Whitney was the man the dining center was named after. According to an interview retrieved from Murphy Library, Former UW-L Special Division Advisor William Laux stated, “Mr. Whitney, had a rather difficult childhood. He was a completely self-made man.”
Whitney began his career as a become a teacher in 1900 with a rural, one-room school in Michigan. This is where Whitney taught for 10 years until he decided to further his education at the University of Michigan to study geology. Whitney then enrolled in the University of Chicago and continued his graduate studies in Geography.
Whitney was a lot more than just his education, though. “He was a great guy, and he was very sympathetic,” reflected Laux.
Whitney cared deeply about his family. During his time at college, he became very homesick. In a recorded interview retrieved from Murphy Library, a former student of Whitney, only identified as Mary, recalled, “He said when he was going to college, it was fifteen miles from his home and he told us, “One night or one afternoon he got so homesick that he hiked home fifteen miles to see his family and then he hiked back that same night in order to be in time for the 8 o’clock class the next morning.”
This man had a passion for learning and teaching. His is quoted saying, “If a young man or woman likes to work with young people and children, be with them daily, so it does not disturb their mental equilibrium, and be content with the salaries paid teachers, then enter the profession.”
Whitney came to UW-L in 1915 where he worked for 37 years until his retirement in 1952.
Whitney was UW-L’s three-time acting President, Vice President and served as Chairman of the Geography Department.
“He was a man who craved friendship very much and didn’t know how to cultivate it,” explained Laux in the interview, “He suffered an unspeakable tragedy when his younger son died. Mr. Whitney never recovered from that tragedy.”
Through his struggles, Whitney remained a compassionate and caring individual. Another former student in an interview recovered from Murphy Library, recounted Whitney’s reaction to her telling him about her father had passed away. Whitney supported her through her own grief. “It was just wonderful. We talked for about two hours…he was the fatherly type.”
Whitney was always looking for ways to help students. For many years, he was president of the La Crosse State Teachers College Foundation board which attended to loans for needy students.
Before you throw around insulting nick-names to the building, remember that Clayton Whitney’s legacy lies within that dining hall, and the name is representative of so much more than the poor food it serves
Cheryl J. Whitney • Oct 16, 2017 at 10:52 pm
Hello,
I wanted to let you know that I enjoyed the article on Clayton A. Whitney, my Great Grandfather.
I was using Google Image, searching for family names that I remembered and found the article “Whitney, I’m Sorry They Named Whitney After You”.
The title was very ironic, because when we visited the college in 1974, I was 16 years old, and he told me that his Grandfather was probably rolling over in his grave that they had named the food building after him. He went on to say that his grandfather was an “all business” type of guy, and the food building would have been his very last choice, or he would have passed on the honor all together. We went inside and there was a large portrait of him on the wall. I thought it was cool, but my father just shook his head, I could tell that he was, well not so much impressed as I was.
My father was raised in La Crosse, met and married my mother in Lawrence, MA and they then moved to California, where I was born in 1958.
My father was the very last Whitney, as Clayton A. Whitney’s one son who lived, Clayton A. Whitney had only one son, named after his brother who died in childhood, Craig A. Whitney.
My father Craig only had two daughters, neither had children and we are the last of the Whitney’s.
I was able to visit La Crosse in 1996, and was able to sit and read the history that the school has kept in the collection, that was a privilege I will always treasure. I also got to go up on “The Bluff” and was able to have lunch at the Elite, where my father worked as a teenager.
Thank you so much Karley Betzler, for the article, it was informative and much appreciated!
Cheryl J. Whitney
Sacramento California