Robert “Bob” Penick Whaling was born in Martinsville, Virginia in 1923. He lived in Winston-Salem for most of his life, graduating from R. J. Reynolds High School in 1940.
He attended Davidson College, but left to serve in World War II in the U. S. Army Infantry. After the war, he attended the University of North Carolina and graduated in 1948. He was on the golf team at UNC.
After college, Bob worked for P. H. Hanes Knitting Company, then he worked for Armrey Company. He began there as a sales manager, then became its president. He joined Pilot Insurance Agency and became the senior managing partner in 1980. The agency was sold to Aon Risk Services in 1986, and he was chairman of the board until his retirement in 1991.
Bob held offices in several professional associations, and was an active member in civic and social organizations.
Bob helped several organizations locate photographs of individuals who were important to that organization, and assisted in preparing displays with these photographs. He helped prepare a list of all the winners of the Forsyth Country Club golf tournament, after looking through years of microfilm, and then he located photographs of the winners for a wall display at the club. He located photographs of the presidents of Goodwill Industries, and worked on similar projects for other organizations.
Bob volunteered his time identifying photographs at the Forsyth County Public Library, and always knew who to ask if he didn’t recognize the person in the photograph.
Bob was married to Mary Lu Wright Whaling, and he passed away in 2006.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
