Theodore Roosevelt Whiteaker has died at his home in Colorado. He was 88 years old.
The obit notes he was a member of the Finland Survivors Club. Good for him. What the heck is this club? A google shows the obit as the only mention of such a thing. He does not seem to have ever been in Finland.
(Yes, I tried a google with an apostrophe. No dice.)
Your thoughts?
The only thing I was able to find after some googling was this page from the web site of the chemical company DuPont. It mentions the Survivor’s CLub, “an organization dedicated to reducing death and disability among police officers by encouraging the use of personal body armor” (preferably made of DuPont’s Kevlar fiber, one supposes). One can only speculate about the link to Finland.
There’s also this group named Survivors Club which united people who have gone through bankruptcy. I wish Mr Whiteaker he wasn’t a member of this exclusive organization.
The last thought that comes to mind is that in at least one work of fiction, Survivor’s CLub is the name of a fictional London gentlemen’s club. Maybe someone picked up the name (not necessarily from the novel mentioned in the Wiki article) and established a gentlemen’s club in Finland under this name.
Perhaps we ought to start one.
There was a U.S.S. Finland that served as a troopship in World War I and was torpedoed, though it didn’t sink and the number of killed was relatively small. Seems like a reasonable conjecture that the club in question has to do with that, since there are other survivors clubs for famous sinkings and near-sinkings (U.S.S. Indianapolis Survivors Club, HMAS Perth Suvivors Club, etc.) Still, it’s strange that the Finland Survivors Club has so little profile, such that you can’t find any trace of it online.
If the USS FInland sank in WWI, that means men aboard her would have been born in about 1900. This guy was born in 1920.
The first paragraph of the linked obit makes it clear that he must have been in Finland at some point.
*Whether it was helping build bridges in Afghanistan during World War II, paper mills in Finland or the Eisenhower Tunnel, Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt Whiteaker was happiest when he traveled with a big project on his plate.
*
The Survivors’ Club is clearly connected with the building of the paper mills in Finland.
Since it mentions that he built paper mills in Finland, and mentions the FSC alongside groups like the Lions, I assume the FSC is a civic charity in Finland.
WAGs:
(1) Depending on when he was in Finland, could it be a reference to his getting caught up in the Finnish wars against the Soviets and Germans during WWII?
(2) Or is the “survivors’ club” some sort of tontine/alumni group organized by expats who at one time worked together in Finland?
I wonder if Donald Eugene Ivens was a member of this mysterious club.
He was on board as a sperm?