LEXINGTON — Long-time criminal defense attorney and Lexington Local School District board member Robert H. Whitney, 88, died on Monday afternoon after a long illness.
Whitney was born Oct. 18, 1935 in Lexington and graduated from Lexington High School in 1953.
A resident of Troy Township, Whitey was drafted into the U. S. Army after high school and served his country for two years.
After completing his military service, Whitney worked in commercial construction and attended night school at then-Ashland College.
Whitney then attended and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in social studies from Ohio Northern University in Ada. He remained at Ohio Northern and attended law school, receiving his legal degree in 1962.
Whitney began practicing law in Mansfield in 1962, a practice he maintained for 61 years.
In l972, along with attorneys John J. Rinehardt and Larry Inscore, Whitney formed the present day law firm of Inscore, Rinehardt and Whitney.
The majority of Whitney’s practice was in criminal law. He tried several hundred jury trials, including several death penalty cases, while practicing primarily in Richland, Ashland, Morrow and Crawford counties.
Two of his prominent cases were defenses for former Mansfield physician John Boyle in 1990 and serial killer Shawn Grate in 2018.
Whitney had been a member of the Lexington Local Schools Board of Education since April of 1964 and had been president of that board almost all of that time. He was the longest serving school board member in the history of Ohio.
In the spring of 2014, the Ohio School Boards Association recognized Whitney for 50 years of service to the school district.
The performing arts center in the new building for grades 7-12 was named after Whitney.
Whitney is survived his wife, Carole Auer, a high school classmate he married in 1956.
He is also survived by four adult children — Rolf Whitney, Tam Whitney Schuster, Michael Whitney and Lore’ Whitney and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Arrangements are pending at Snyder Funeral Homes.