Benefactor’s Generosity Boosts Kirkwood Science Programs

When 93-year-old Blanton Whitmire went to science class back in the Depression, his little high school in the mountains of North Carolina didn’t have so much as a microscope.

But thanks to his generosity, students at Kirkwood High School – and soon Joplin High School – have top-notch scientific research equipment the likes of which colleges don’t even have.

The Glendale resident is the founder of a chemical company, Whitmire Research Laboratories, which was an innovator in the pest-control industry. He is passionate about helping today’s students get real-world experiences in science at an early age, to get them excited about science and be better positioned to compete worldwide.

“These kids are sharp. They want advanced stuff to learn,” he said. “When I went to high school in the country, we had practically nothing.”

Whitmire has given a total of $250,000 to Kirkwood schools to help fund science education programs. The first $100,000 helped buy a number of pieces of specialized research equipment that are rarely found in high school classrooms.

He came up with the idea after his friend, retired KHS principal Franklin McCallie, took him on a tour of the newly built Walker Science Building a few years ago.

“I realized it’s a beautiful building but they didn’t have any modern equipment,” Whitmire said. “They were using the old equipment in a brand-new building.”

Last year, after a tornado ravaged Joplin, MO, destroying the high school as well as much of the town, Whitmire got on the phone to McCallie.

“He said, ‘I’m worried that they have no science classes,’” McCallie recalled. “He said, ‘I want to give $100,000 to Joplin High School but I want to give it to Kirkwood High School to be used for Joplin. I want Joplin High School to get the same critical scientific equipment that Kirkwood has and I want Kirkwood teachers to teach them how to use it.”

McCallie said he had never heard of a collaboration quite like it, but “I thought it was super. His vision was really something.”

McCallie said Whitmire wanted the two schools to become regional science hubs that would be open to other schools.

“He’d love to see the metropolitan St. Louis area and Joplin become outstanding science centers for all of our kids, and he means ALL of our kids,” he said.

Whitmire’s daughter, Cathy Whitmire (KHS Class of ’65,) said that when she and her brother, Richard (KHS Class of ’67,) were growing up, their parents always made clear the importance of both education and giving back to the community.

“He was interested in the way the world worked and he encouraged us to ask questions about the way things worked,” she said. And, he set an example “that you could do anything with creativity and hard work.”

She said that even though her parents were comfortable financially, they lived simply. When Whitmire sold his company, he immediately gave away more than half of what he made, she said.

“Dad really believes in giving back to the community,” she said. “What Dad passed on to us was the sense that you work for the common good.”

Through the years, he has funded numerous projects, including professorships at North Carolina State, a training program to help Kenyans develop indigenous forms of pest control, and a chapel at his church, First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood.

For his late wife’s 70th birthday, he established the Whitmire Wildflower Garden at Shaw Nature Reserve.

“They had this habit of giving each other gifts that benefited everyone else,” McCallie said.

And why not, Whitmire asked.

“Money doesn’t make you happy. Money only makes you happy when you use it for something proper,” he said.

Whitmire’s latest contribution is a $50,000 gift to launch summer science camps at KHS, starting this summer. He was inspired, in part, by a grandson’s experience with science camp.

“He was crazy about bugs,” Cathy Whitmire said of her son, Zachary. “He went to his first science camp at age 7. He was turned on to science from that bug class.”

Today, Zachary is doing key research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

“So when Dad said science camp, I said: ‘Yay!’” Cathy Whitmire said.