Industry veteran Whitaker meets an untimely end with wife Kathi by his side. Eaton Vance executive Wharton Parker Whitaker, who was known to his friends by the nickname "Whit," died of heart failure while skiing in Lincoln, N.H., this past Saturday. He was 62. He had no history of heart illness.

As president of Eaton Vance Distributors, Whitaker was responsible for worldwide sales and marketing of the Boston-based asset manager's products and services.

In his long tenure at Eaton Vance, Whitaker helped build "one of the best and most respected distribution companies in the fund industry," says Eaton Vance chairman and CEO James Hawkes. ""He will be greatly missed as a friend and business colleague."

Eaton Vance has launched a search for someone to fill Whitaker's position. The firm had $133 billion under management at the end of 2006. 

Jamie Waller, CEO of FWR and a pioneer of the investment-consulting business, calls Whitaker "an amazing man and a real visionary" in the investment industry. "He's one of a handful of business leaders who changed the face of investing by taking institutional-quality consulting to private clients on a really large scale."

Something he loved

Kathi Whitaker, Whitaker's wife of 27 years, was with him on the mountainside when he died, as was Lawrence Sinsimer, head of separately managed accounts at Eaton Vance and Whitaker's close friend for more than 30 years.

"He hired me in June 1976, we were bachelors together, we were at each other's weddings, and we went skiing together every weekend," says Sinsimer.

Responding to what he calls "two or three different" descriptions of Whitaker's death, "including that he was in a big crash" on the slopes, Sinsimer has written an eyewitness account.

"Whit, Kathi and I were the first to make fresh tracks as the mountain opened" last Saturday morning, Sinsimer writes. "We did a warm-up run, skiing easily from the top to the bottom, and got on the chair lift. As we neared the top, Whit remarked: 'Gotta tell ya Lar, this is what winter in New England is all about: sun coming up, it's not too cold, six inches of new snow, trees are glistening; it doesn't get any better than this.'"

"We skied off the lift. [Whit went] 10 to15 yards and collapsed in front of the first-aid station. In less than a minute, 12 people were trying to save him. They had a defibrillator, oxygen, [and they did] CPR, etc., but he never responded."

Adds Sinsimer: "If it is any consolation, he never knew what hit him. He died with Kathi and me at his side doing something he loved."

Made a difference

Whitaker was born in Salem, Mass., and raised in Barrington, R.I. He attended the U.S. Navy's Officers Candidate School in Newport, R.I., earned a commission and served aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Witek in Vietnam.

After his national service, Whitaker went back to school and earned an M.B.A. He began his financial-service career with Prudential Insurance. He subsequently worked at Keystone Provident Life (now part of Sun Life USA) and Shearson Lehman Brothers (now part of Citigroup) before joining Eaton Vance in 1987 as national sales director.

Whitaker was active in several industry associations including the Investment Company Institute, where he was a long-standing member of the Sales and Marketing Committee, the Financial Planning Association and the Money Management Institute.

A resident of South Orleans, Mass., Whitaker was active in several communities. He was a trustee of Ashburnham, Mass.-based Cushing Academy, served on the investment committee of Central Congregational Church in Providence, and was a member of the parent association for Hamilton School at Wheeler in Providence. He was a proud participant in the Big Brother program, "and knew that his involvement had made a difference in one very special young man's life," according to his obituary in the Providence Journal.

Though fond of active pursuits like skiing, sailing, fishing, scuba diving and skeet shooting, Whitaker also derived a great deal of pleasure from his houseboat, where, on Sundays, he was fond of pouring over the New York Times and enjoying the view over Cape Cod's Pleasant Bay.

In addition to his wife Kathi, Whitaker is survived by his daughters Kelsey and Courtney, his sister Nancy Keysor of Setauket, N.Y., and his brother Ted, who lives in Greece.

A memorial service for Whitaker will be held on Wednesday 7 February at 10:30 a.m. at Central Congregational Church at 296 Angell Street in Providence. A reception will follow the service.

Instead of sending flowers, Whitaker's family asks that well wishers make donations to a scholarship fund in Whitaker's memory at Hamilton School at Wheeler at 216 Hope Street in Providence. -FWR

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