Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Monday, October 20, 2008 at 09:00:49 :
Independent Journal
Saturday, June 30, 1979
GEORGE F. WHITSETT
George F. Whitsett, 89, of Mill Valley, retired advertising executive, poet and writer, died Friday in a local hospital after an illness.
Whitsett was a native of White County, Ill., who graduated form Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., and received a scroll of honor from the college in 1966.
After working as a woodchopper, country schoolteacher, factory worker and editor for farm newspapers, he entered the advertising business.
Whitsett served as head of N. W. Ayer & Sons creative department in San Francisco and served the firm in Philadelphia, New York and London.
Ford Motor Co., American Telephone and Telegraph, Camel cigarettes, Dole products and Steinway piano were among his major accounts.
Whitsett was one of the founders of the magazine USA, and a contributor to Dial, Liberator, Herald Tribune Books. He also wrote the libretto for an opera by Marc Blitzstein and was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Whitsett also wrote several novels and song lyrics. He had been a resident of Marin for 40 years and was a director of the Garden Society of Marin.
Surviving are a daughter, Sue Hewitt of McLean, Va.; and a stepson, George Keyes of Old Greenwich, Conn.
Graveside services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at Mount Tamalpais Cemetery, San Rafael.
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