William Gordon Whaley (1914-1982), botanist, academic administrator. Born in New York City, W. Gordon Whaley earned degrees from the University of Massachusetts (B.S., 1936) and Columbia University (Ph.D., 1939). From 1939-1945, he taught at Barnard College and Columbia, and served as Senior Geneticist in the U. S. Department of Agriculture. In 1946, the University of Texas at Austin hired him as an Associate Professor of Botany in its Department of Botany and Bacteriology. Whaley was chosen as the first Chairman when an independent Department of Botany was created in 1949. He led the department until 1962, by which time it had earned national distinction. He directed UT's Cell Research Institute (originally Plant Research Institute) from 1948-1979. In 1972, UT named him Ashbel Smith Professor of Cellular Biology.
Trained as a geneticist and an early user of electron microscopy, Whaley published a number of books for scholars, students, and a popular audience. He taught, lectured, and attended conferences internationally, and earned a Fullbright-Hayes Award to serve as Visiting Professor at the University of Leningrad [St. Petersburg, Russia] in 1978. The Botanical Society of America honored him with its Merit Award in 1978 "in recognition of his early contributions to genetics and morphogenesis and of his pioneering role in elucidating the cellular biology of plants, with special reference to the Golgi apparatus." Whaley and his students demonstrated the existence of that cell organelle in plants.
Whaley joined the UT Graduate School as Associate Dean in 1954. He
served as Dean from 1957 until 1972, during which time UT's graduate student
enrollment more than doubled. Whaley was active in national and regional
organizations relating to graduate education and science. He helped to found
the Council of Graduate Schools. Whaley lectured and consulted throughout the
U.S. on graduate education, and created and edited a forum on the topic,
In 1938, Whaley married Clare Youngren, with whom he had a daughter, Patricia Anne (Hardesty). He died in December 1982.
Correspondence, reports, minutes, printed material, photographic
material document W. Gordon Whaley's University of Texas at Austin career as
Graduate Dean, scientist and laboratory administrator, and academic journal
editor, 1939-1982 (bulk 1954-1982). Three series: 1. Office of the Graduate
Dean, 1954-1972; 2. Botany Department and Cell Research Institute, 1939-1982;
3.
Materials from Whaley's Graduate Dean office (17 linear feet, 6 inches) include subject files, correspondence files, publications, and some personal materials including. They document the relationship between the Office of the Graduate Dean and other UT administrative and academic offices and units; faculty and research at UT; and Whaley's role in organizations devoted to scientific or graduate education, including National Science Foundation projects at UT. A set of classified files (1954-1964) include subject files, university correspondence files, and professional organization files. Individual folders include designations from the original filing scheme, though they were not received in order. Later, unclassifed files (bulk 1965-1972) contain similar material, including a second set of departmental correspondence files. The series documents Whaley's consultations on graduate education at other institutions. Other files relate to Whaley's work as a scientist, including authorship of the textbook Principles of Biology, and to UT politics. The series contains texts of speeches and articles, reprints of some of Whaley's writings on graduate education, and mementos.
Biology Department and Cell Research Institute Files (3 linear feet, 9 inches) largely relate to Whaley's career after stepping down as Graduate Dean in 1972. They document Whaley's teaching, scholarship, publishing, and continuing management of UT's Cell Research Institute; materials relating to numerous national and international institutes, conferences, and symposia, including Whaley's semester as visiting professor in the Soviet Union (1978); and reprints of Whaley's scientific works (1939-1981). Includes correspondence files (1966-1982, bulk 1975-1982).
Whaley's colleague, Dr. Audrey N. Slate, organized and donated the papers, and provided explanatory notes on some of his files.
Some access restrictions may apply due to privacy concerns. Consult archivist.
Stored in Collections Deposit Library. Allow 72 hours notice for retrieval.
William Gordon Whaley Papers, 1939-1982, Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.