John D. Whisman was a founder of the Appalachian Regional Commission. He, along with Kentucky Governor Bert T. Combs, Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes, and a few others were instrumental in establishing the federal-state agency in 1965. Whisman was born in Indiana in 1921, but was reared in eastern Kentucky, the homeland of his parents. He attended the local schools in Indiana and Kentucky, graduating from Powell County (Kentucky) High School in 1940. He attended college, then served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After service, he received a degree in journalism from the University of Kentucky in 1950. For his entire career, Whisman was on a mission to eliminate poverty in his native Appalachian region. He pursued this in whatever position he held. He started principally with his work in Junior Chamber of Commerce. It was as president of the Kentucky Jaycees in the 1950s that he started forming the concepts that would be the structure for the ARC. He pursued his goal of implementing a comprehensive development process as executive director of the Eastern Kentucky Regional Planning Commission, as special assistant to two Kentucky governors, as staff chairman of the Conference of Appalachian Governors, as a member of President Kennedy's Area Redevelopment Task Force, as executive secretary of the President's Appalachian Regional Commission, and as the first appointed States' Regional Representative of the Appalachian Regional Commission. After leaving ARC in 1976, Whisman continued his passion for planned development both as a consultant and as a civic leader. He died in 1995, in Frankfort, Kentucky, leaving a wife and two sons.
From the description of John D. Whisman Papers, 1936-1995. (University of Kentucky Libraries). WorldCat record id: 62033937
