After 50 Years, He's Still `The Doc' -- John Whitaker Left His Mark On Snoqualmie -- `People Still Stop Me In The Grocery Store And Ask If I Remember Delivering Them.'

SNOQUALMIE

There was never an excuse like "the check's in the mail."

Instead, a Snoqualmie man dropped off four piglets to pay for his family's medical bills. A woman paid in berries - gallons and gallons of huckleberries - back in the early days of Dr. John Whitaker's medical practice.

And there was a $20 gold piece from a woman who simply wanted to show her appreciation for the country doctor.

"We still have that coin. People did wonderful things for us. . . . Everyone wanted to help the doctor," Mary Whitaker recalls.

John and Mary Whitaker have lived in the Upper Snoqualmie Valley since 1947, when "Doc" Whitaker went to work with Dr. E.W. Templeton in Meadowbrook. Soon there wasn't room enough for the number of patients they were seeing.

So the Whitakers bought a small house in downtown Snoqualmie, and John opened his own practice. Over the next few years, with Mary running the office, they added to the house to accommodate the growing practice and finally built a small clinic in 1959, which also expanded over the next four decades.

John Whitaker delivered more than 1,000 babies to three generations of valley families.

"People still stop me in the grocery store and ask if I remember delivering them," he said.

The Whitakers made their own contribution to the valley population: six sons and five daughters. Today photos of their 33 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren are scattered on the walls, desks and tables of their Snoqualmie Falls Properties office in Issaquah, where they manage their rental and income holdings.

The Whitakers hail from St. Paul, but a twist of fate made John's birthplace Seattle.

His mother, eight months pregnant, thought she could make a trip from St. Paul to Seattle and back before he was born. But he arrived early.

Whitaker grew up in Minnesota, where he left his mark at the University of Minnesota with a national intercollegiate wrestling title.

High-school sweethearts, John and Mary were married in 1941, before he joined other Navy pilots in World War II.

Whitaker, 82, remembers well his 18 months flying a medical evacuation plane. But even most acquaintances aren't aware of his bravery during the fierce fighting on Guadalcanal.

He piloted a lumbering, twin-engine DC-3 filled with critically injured Marines from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal to field hospitals on other islands.

The runway at the airfield was pocked with huge holes, the result of shelling from Japanese battleships and cruisers.

"We had to fly in and out in the early morning hours or late in the day to avoid the shelling," he recalled.

A citation for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" from Frank Knox, secretary of the Navy, notes that on Oct. 12-13, 1942, Whitaker arrived at Henderson Field with a cargo of emergency supplies and supervised loading wounded troops while the field was under continuous attack.

"Although the wings, fuselage and tail section of his plane were seriously damaged by shrapnel, Capt. Whitaker . . . took off his heavily loaded and damaged plane, successfully evacuating 14 wounded men to safety," the citation says.

Whitaker recalls that before he could take off, he and his flight engineer had to crawl out on the wings and stamp down ragged pieces of torn metal.

Then, during the 800-mile flight to an island in the New Hebrides, he and his copilot were forced to turn off the autopilot because of damage to the plane and taking turns, struggled with the controls during the entire flight.

Whitaker was awarded the Silver Cross, the third-highest medal for gallantry in action. He also received four Distinguished Flying Crosses and 13 Air Medals.

After the war, Whitaker completed medical school and came to Seattle to intern at the Merchant Marine Hospital, now Pacific Care.

Snoqualmie Mayor Jeanne Hansen has known Doc Whitaker since he delivered her now-35-year-old son.

"He's a very fine man and has been a wonderful doctor in this small community . . . a man who cared for people and tried in every way to help people. He built the medical community we have today," she said.

In 1962, concerned about providing care for his many older patients, he formed Villa Care and opened a nursing home in Issaquah. Eventually he left the medical clinic in Snoqualmie and devoted his time to the nursing-home business, which grew to 12 facilities scattered from Renton to Bellingham. He sold Villa Care in 1984.

Whitaker conceded he's slowed down a bit, especially since his ballroom-dancing days. Mary explained that she and John took up ballroom dancing about 20 years ago as a break from their hectic work pace.

"We worked hard and really enjoyed it. We were in competitions from Canada to California. . . . It was amateur stuff, but a lot of fun," she said.

Louis T. Corsaletti's phone message number is 206-515-5626. His e-mail address is: lcor-new@seatimes.com Eastside Profile is an occasional feature of The Times Eastside edition. Got a suggestion on someone we should write about? Contact us via the addresses at the top of this page.