John Frederick Whitsett

WHITSETT, John Frederick - Age 85 passed away peacefully on Monday, October 27th in St. George's, Grenada, West Indies, about a mile from the Caribbean Sea. He was born on September 25th, 1940 to Mary Elizabeth Atkinson of Cheyenne, WY and William Paul Whitsett, Jr. of Terre Haute, IN at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital less than 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Though his parents divorced when he was young, he and his sister Myrtle spent a mostly happy and idyllic childhood often visiting myriad extended family in the Los Angeles area riding horses, sampling sweet oranges and swimming in their pools. He attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, CA 1955-1958 and graduated from Occidental College in 1962 with a BA in Economics. He spent part of his Junior year competitively skiing in the European Alps and learning French. In his senior year he sold his surfboard to buy his first sailboat, a small dinghy.

Late in 1962, he joined the Navy at Naval Air Station Pensacola, FL as an Aviation Officer Candidate Naval Aviation Cadet Program Seamen Apprentice (AOCNCPSA). Upon graduation with the rank of Ensign he went through additional training at Naval Air Station Alameda, CA then was assigned in 1964 to Naval Air Station Lemoore, CA and shipped out on attack carrier Ticonderoga (CVA-14) with carrier air wing 5 (CVW-5) and attack squadron 55 (VA-55) for training, port calls and special operations in Hawaii, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos and Hong Kong. He received a Navy Expeditionary Medal (Vietnam) and a Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon (Gulf of Tonkin) and was honorably discharged at the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) in 1966.

He worked for Economic Research Associates (part of Stanford Research Institute) in Southern California from 1966-1969. Their largest client was the Walt Disney Company where he worked on the team responsible for tiered ticket (A-E) pricing studies at Disneyland. While working at ERA, his French was good enough (or perhaps it was a shared interest in competitive European skiing) which enabled him to work on an assignment to assist Aga Khan IV with the fledgling Aga Khan Foundation: surveying luxury resorts in the Mediterranean. Another project surveyed school districts in Texas to anticipate Baby Boom impact on school enrollments.
Later in 1969, he moved north to the San Francisco Bay area and began working as Assistant to the President for his uncle George H. Atkinson at the Guy F. Atkinson Company in South San Francisco. The company was founded by his maternal grandfather in 1926 and built its reputation on a portfolio of projects that included Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State and the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The firm matured into a provider of engineering, building, pulp and paper, mining and water and wastewater treatment. He later served on the board of directors eventually becoming Chairman of the Board through the company's bankruptcy and reorganization in 1997.

Shortly after moving north, he purchased his second sailboat, a Coronado 30' he christened Artemis which he happily sailed on the San Francisco Bay and up and down the California coast. In 1970 he purchased Stone Boat Yard in Alameda, CA and Standard Brass Foundry in Oakland, CA and he stopped working at GFA in 1971 to fully devote his time to his new enterprises. He was particularly proud that Stone Boat Yard built St. Francis IV for the St. Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco, the last wooden Six-Meter to be built in the United States. Stone Boat Yard also built him a bigger boat, a 36' custom mahogany-hulled One-Ton racer aimed at competition in San Francisco's blustery winds and steep seas which he christened Rolling Stone and raced extensively and also sailed for pleasure. After selling Rolling Stone, he began working on his dream home, Dos Osos, completely renovating, rebuilding and expanding mostly by himself a formerly small cottage/barn on top of one of Orinda, CA's highest hills. In 1983 Standard Brass Foundry acquired APAC Manufacturing in Livermore, CA. He sold Stone Boat Yard in 1986, sold APAC Manufacturing in 2001 and began thinking about the next chapter of his life.

In 2005, while perusing a boating magazine, he came across an ad for a sailboat in Grenada which had suffered damage from hurricane Ivan in 2004. He made his first trip to the island and became entranced by its beauty, its people and the boat, which he purchased and began repairing over many subsequent trips back to the island. Raindancer was a 76' long, 18' "big in the beam!" angelique wooden hull staysail schooner carrying 2700 hundred feet of sail. After extensive renovations, she made her first charter voyage in 2007, and for the next six years "Captain John" lived and made his living on his dreamboat in his island paradise. Sadly in 2013, Raindancer was lost on a reef and John would have to reinvent himself again.

Having fallen in love with Grenada and its people and needing a place to live, he decided to build his home there; he purchased a plot of land once bombed by the US in 1983 and began building yet another dream home again mostly by himself, Marina Vista. He also began working as Managing Director for Clarke & Carter, a prominent international yacht brokerage where he was able to place many more boats into eager Captain's hands before selling his interest in 2021. In 2010 he co-founded Petite Calivigny Yacht Club based at Le Phare Bleu Marina. He felt strongly that the Club needed a junior program and when the Woburn Wind Warriors program, based in the neighboring village of Woburn needed assistance he happily stepped in and the PCYC/Woburn Wind Warriors partnership was created. Over the past few years, John developed the program to the point where learn-to-sail and more advanced race training takes place year round and Grenadian sailors are competing in international events.

He was married four times, all ending in divorce: to Diana Dunn in Burbank, CA from 1962- 1973, to Marcia Belcher in Oakland, CA from 1975-1977, to Kirsten Holst in Orinda, CA from 1977-1996, and to Lois Layne in Maui, HI from 2002-2005. He is survived by his four children: Jeffrey M. Whitsett of Cross River, NY, Peter J. Whitsett of Westlake, TX, Lisa Kalar of Berkeley, CA, J. Kristian Whitsett of Shelburne Falls, MA and eight grandchildren. The family requests that to honor Captain John, contributions be sent to the Petite Calivigny Yacht Club Junior Sailing Program to continue fostering and inspiring a lifelong love of the sea.

https://www.pcycgrenada.com/

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-grenadian-kids-john-whitsetts-sailing-legacy

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