John Overbey Whittum
Marriages
Leigh Whittum
Obituaries
Steamboat Pilot - December 10, 2019
On Saturday, December 7th, 2019, John Overbey Whittum passed away at the age of 88. John was born on November 27th, 1931 in Atlanta, Georgia to Charles Harold and Margaret Overbey Whittum. He grew up in Wayne, Pennsylvania, graduated with a B.A. from Harvard, and chose teaching as his profession. He moved to Steamboat Springs in 1963, taking a job as an English teacher at the Lowell Whiteman School (now Steamboat Mountain School). John spent 25 years working there as both teacher and headmaster.
John loved to sail. He owned and skippered the Mystery log canoe for many years and won the Maryland Governor’s Cup in 1961. Later, he brought a small sailboat, the Heliotrope, out to Colorado with him to sail on Steamboat Lake. He had a great appreciation for the outdoors and spent countless hours taking long walks, hiking and camping in the wilderness, and cross-country skiing. He took up yoga and meditation and made both a daily practice, which he attributed to helping him survive cancer in 2013.
Later in life he got an M.A. in English and taught at the University of Colorado Denver. Always an active community member, John was involved with the Community Alliance, the Strawberry Park Group, the Soda Creek Ditch Company, the Steamboat Writer’s Group and many others. He loved theatre and acted in and directed many local productions, and played founder James Crawford in Steamboat's centennial celebration Signatures. He felt strongly about community issues and often made his thoughts known through opinion pieces in the local paper. John also enjoyed writing short stories and poems and published a book in 2016 titled Reflections from Northwest Colorado. John is survived by his wife of 50 years, Leigh, and his two daughters, Maggie and Lynn. A celebration of John’s life will be held in the spring of 2020. ~ source: Whittum Family