Thomas Whitaker, scholar of modern drama and poetry

Thomas Russell Whitaker, the Fredrick W. Hilles Professor of English & Theater Studies, Emeritus, scholar of modern poetry and drama, died at Middlesex Hospital in Connecticut on Dec. 24. He was 95 years old.

Whitaker was known for the breadth of his research and teaching, unusual in that it spanned two different genres. Both his acclaimed book on William Butler Yeats, “Swan and Shadow: Yeats’s Dialogue with History,” which considers the role of history in Yeats’s poetic development, and his book “William Carlos Williams” reached second editions. His work on drama was also significant: “Fields of Play in Modern Drama” and “Mirrors of Our Playing: Paradigms in Modern Drama” were critical contributions to the field of Theater Studies, as was his book on the playwright Tom Stoppard in the Modern Dramatists series, one of the early studies of Stoppard’s work.

Richard Brodhead, A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English, emeritus and former Dean of Yale College remembers that, “When Tom Whitaker came to Yale for the second time in the 1970s, lyric poetry and prose fiction had driven drama far from the center of literary study. Tom’s great contribution was that he reclaimed theater for English as a field. As a scholar and teacher, he pioneered the study of drama’s fusion of text and performance, and he left his mark through his citizenship as well. In a department full of strong personalities, Tom supplied a model of personal independence and collegial respect. For those of us who were junior faculty, having Tom as chair did nothing to spare you the ordeal of high standards, but it did give you the assurance of being taken seriously and judged impartially. When I myself became a chair, I learned a great deal from Tom’s example.”

Thomas Whitaker was born in 1925 in Marquette, Michigan. He graduated summa cum laude from Oberlin College, interrupting his college career to serve for two years in the U.S. Army Engineering Corps, and received his M.A. and then his Ph.D. from Yale in 1953. He taught first at Oberlin, then at Goddard for two years, and in 1966 became Professor of English at the University of Iowa.  

In 1975, more than two decades after receiving his formal degrees from Yale, Whitaker returned to Yale as Professor of English.  In 1989 he was appointed the Frederick W. Hilles Professor of English, and in 1986, in recognition of his contributions to the fields of both English and Drama, he was appointed professor of Theater Studies as well. I  Paul Fry, William Lampson Professor of English, Emeritus remembers that Whitaker’s understanding of drama was not merely theoretical. “All who knew him remember his measured, deeply sonorous voice,” Fry said, “and that voice lingers most vividly for those who saw his legendary performance as Herbert, the martyred father in Wordsworth's drama, ‘The Borderers.’” 

Whitaker served as the Chair of the Yale English Department from 1979 to 1985 at a heady time in the department’s history. Many of the new critics, such as Maynard Mack, Cleanth Brooks, and Robert Penn Warren were alive and, although retired, were still lending their influence to the department. The deconstructionists were in full flourish, and Harold Bloom was a major presence. There was also a large group of young assistant and associate professors eager to make their mark, stewarding hundreds of English majors. To this swirl, Whitaker brought his integrity, his midwestern calm, his sense of fairness, and his unflappable personality. 

Despite his erudition and his Yale appointments, Whitaker retained a benevolent American sense of doing for others. He served as a writer and advisor for the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute from 1998 to 2002, and as an advisor with the Yale National Initiative from 2002 to 2012. In New Haven, he did volunteer work for Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic, using his resonant voice and love of literature in the creation of many recordings. He also wrote the narrative for the video script “Excellence in Teaching: Agenda for Partnership,” was recognized from 1993 to 2009 as chairman of the editorial board of “On Common Ground,” and in 1991 edited “Teaching in New Haven: The Common Challenge.”

In recognition of his devotion to service and his contributions to the common cause, Whitaker was awarded the Seton Elm-Ivy Award from the City of New Haven and Yale University in 2005, as well as the influential Harbison Award for Gifted Teaching from the Danforth Foundation in 1972. 

Whitaker’s first wife Dorothy Barnes, the mother of his four children, died in the nineties. He is survived by his present wife Ann, his children, Thomas O’Hara, Sarah Mae, Mary Beth, and Gwendolyn Anne, and his granddaughter Sarah Anne Whelan. A memorial service will be held in the late spring. In lieu of flowers the family would welcome a gift to Berea College, Berea, Kentucky, or St John’s Episcopal Church, North Guilford, Connecticut.