Stephen Whitaker

Stephen Whitaker, born July 8, 1932, passed away on May 9, 2023, at 90 years old. Steve was born in a small local hospital in Carmel, California to Francis and Elaine Whitaker. By all accounts it was idyllic, despite the hardships of the Great Depression and he made a cluster of friends there that would stand him in good stead for most of his life.

Steve was a record-holder in the pole vault and played football and basketball at Carmel High School and went on to graduate with honors from University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Chemical Engineering. He completed his graduate work at the University of Delaware and, after a stint working for the DuPont Chemical Company, secured a teaching position at Northwestern University.

He came to the University of California at Davis in 1964, where he worked for the bulk of his long and productive career, teaching generations of students and doing research specializing in fluid mechanics and heat transfer. He is the author of four textbooks, the most recent of which is entitled Material Balances for Chemical Reacting Systems with co-authors R.L. Cerro and B.G. Higgins.

Among Steve’s many honors are an AICHE Award for education and an Honoris Causa from Salamanca University in Spain, as well as the Jeff and Dianne Child-Steve Whitaker Professorship in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, an endowment established at UC Davis in 2019. Steve’s skills in the field were often in demand and his career took him and his wife Su to beautiful and interesting places such as France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Australia, Taiwan, Venezuela, and Argentina.

Steve loved camping, mountain climbing and backpacking, and was especially fond of spending time with his family in Yosemite. He was also an avid volleyball player, gardener, and world traveler.

He is survived by the love of his life for fifty years, Suzanne Whitaker. He will be remembered with great love by Ken Yager and partner Julia, Max and Anita Yager; James Whitaker, Lynn and Brian Hurd and Susan Whitaker and partner Kirby. His memory will also be cherished by grandchildren; Anji, Braden, Hayley, Guy, Ruby, Tenaya, Lisa, Erik, Matthew, Sarah, Niko, Angela, Rick, Sean and great-grandchildren, Peter, Liam, and Elowyn. He was preceded in death by his son, Michael Laurence Whitaker.

His close-knit extended family will remember him for his flawless depiction of Ghandi at charades during family game night in 1992, his exhortation in the face of complainers, which was “Bite the bullet,” and his favorite joke: “Why is a mosquito not like a mountain climber? Answer- Because one is a vector and the other is a scaler.”

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Steve’s honor to the Mono Lake Committee, The Sierra Club of California, or the Yosemite Conservancy. A celebration of life will be held for Steve in Monterey at a time to be determined later.