RIDGEFIELD, Conn. — It was standing room only at the First Congregational Church here last Wednesday, as every major name in the tour operator community filed in to pay their respects and mourn the loss of an industry giant.
Six days had passed since the death of U.S. Tour Operators Association President Bob Whitley, and those gathering for the memorial service and reception clearly were still in shock.
"It’s odd to see everyone in this happy industry wearing black," Robin Tauck said as the somber crowd quietly exited the church.
Whitley’s two sons, Scott and Shaun, and his daughter, Kelly Brock, offered a eulogy before a group that included USTOA officers, the organization’s board of directors and both active and retired members and affiliates.
At the reception at the Inn at Longshore in Westport, Conn., the microphone was opened to anyone who wished to share their thoughts about the man who had headed one of the country’s most influential travel organizations for 32 years.
Part postmortem roast, part trip down memory lane, part tearful commiseration, the industry’s leaders stood, one by one, to share stories about a leader whom most in the room had known and worked with for decades.
Arthur Tauck, chairman of Tauck World Discovery, told a story about how Whitley had "saved my life" on a trip to Ireland years ago, when the bus left Tauck behind and Whitley had the driver turn around to fetch him.
A common thread that wove through any of the stories was golfing, as industry vets rattled off tales of Whitley’s love of golf despite injuries and mishaps, including slipping into a swampy hole on one course and calling out to Tauck, "Save me, Art! Save me!"
Whitley played courses around the world during his many travels, and he shared his passion for the game with others.
"You know Bob," Tauck said. "He arranged a lot of golf outings that we all have enjoyed."
Among those in attendance, many were swapping stories about what year and under what circumstances they had first met Whitley. The general tone of the memories was happy, even comical, though for some the moment was emotionally overwhelming.
"So much has been said about Bob and his success in the industry," said Alex Harris, chairman of General Tours, a founding member of the USTOA. "The first time he entered my office for an interview for the job that he had, my heart went to him and never left him. He was my buddy and filled my life as only a son could fill it."
Whitley, 66, died on May 13 following complications from abdominal surgery.
The future of the USTOA
On May 18, John Stachnik, USTOA chairman and president of Mayflower Tours, sat down at Bob Whitley’s desk at the USTOA’s New York office to start trying to make sense of all the email, paper correspondence and logistics that go into running the organization.
"Bob is irreplaceable," said Stachnik, who as acting leader of the USTOA must now work together with the other officers and the board of directors to begin the process of finding and recruiting someone who can head an organization that lobbies for the packaged travel industry.
Whitley made the USTOA "a premier force in this industry," Stachnik said. "He was never afraid to get in an airplane. There’s a cumulative effect of doing that over and over again. Those hundreds of appearances added up to remarkable credibility within the industry."
According to Stachnik, the executive committee was scheduled to meet last week, and among the issues they would be discussing would be the presidency.
Once the committee reaches a consensus on who might fill the role, it will then go to the board for a vote.
"We’re not going to do anything hasty," Stachnik said. The announcement of a new president "won’t be accomplished in a month, and it won’t be accomplished in a year," he said, alluding to the likelihood that it will happen sometime in between those two time frames.
In the interim, Stachnik will be commuting between Mayflower Tours’ headquarters in Downers Grove, Ill., and New York to assist with day-to-day operations as well as the USTOA’s annual conference, which will take place in New Orleans this year, Dec. 10 through 12.
But as he looked over the photos on Whitley’s desk, Stachnik was clearly disinclined to talk much business.
"One of my favorite pictures is Bob and I in Hawaii in the mid-’80s at a conference," Stachnik said. "We were both young and tan and thin.
"The world was our oyster, and nobody could stop us."
Robert Earl Whitley, 66
Robert Whitley was born in Norfolk, Va., on March 23, 1944, to Robert Whitley and Juanita Cook.
In addition to his father and his children, he is survived by his wife of 44 years, Carol; a sister, Linda Tiller of Edenton, N.C.; a brother, Willis Peachy of Tampa; and five grandchildren.
Whitley attended Maury High School in Norfolk and took classes at Virginia’s Old Dominion University.
He lived in Pennsylvania, Florida and New York before settling in Ridgefield 26 years ago.
Prior to joining the USTOA, Whitley served as director of the Florida and Pennsylvania departments of tourism and director of the Virginia Beach Convention and Tourist Bureau.
In 1978, Whitley was tapped to head the USTOA six years after several California-based tour operators founded the organization with the idea that they needed to protect themselves and their customers against bankruptcies.
Under Whitley’s leadership, the USTOA and the tour operator landscape have evolved, facing both victories and challenges along the way.
Some of the toughest years, and those that would define Whitley’s resolve as a leader, came more recently.
In 2001, just as the industry was being hit with the fallout from 9/11, USTOA member Kingdom Vacations went bankrupt, leaving the organization, together with its $1 million consumer protection plan, to try to pick up the pieces.
The bankruptcy marked the first time in the association’s history that consumers lost money on a member operator’s failure, and at the time Whitley called it "the most frustrating year of my 23 years as head of this organization."
But Whitley stepped up to bat, raising an additional $1 million to pay partial refunds to clients of the defunct Kingdom Vacations.
That experience came in handy in 2003, when the bankruptcy of USTOA member Far & Wide Travel Corp. again left the association to try to aid customers and agents.
Most recently, Whitley had been lobbying to lift the travel ban to Cuba. At the first U.S.-Cuba Travel Summit in Cancun in late March, he told delegates that lifting the ban "has been a personal goal of mine for the last 30 years."