The words on an award from the Mesa County Republicans to John Whiting read: “rode hard, drew from the hip and shot straight.”
The description perfectly fit Whiting, said Gary Roahrig, a friend and chairman of the Mesa County Republican Party.
A longtime Colorado rancher, Whiting died Monday at his ranch near Grand Junction. He was 75.
Whiting and other members of his family own the Hanging W Ranch near Whitewater, just outside Grand Junction.
His son Steve Whiting runs the 1,000-acre ranch, which specializes in Simmental cattle. The Whitings sold off about 200 acres for a housing development several years ago.
For years the family had a chuckwagon barbecue at the ranch on summer nights.
It included a dinner of roast beef and baked beans, and singing by Whiting, a tenor, and his brother, Rod Whiting, a bass, said John Whiting’s wife, Lois Whiting.
The two brothers wrote their own comedy skits for the performance.
Besides ranching, Whiting loved politics.
Roahrig called Whiting “Godfather,” because of his “wisdom and critical thinking.”
“He was a great political strategist,” said Barbara Brewer, Mesa County’s assessor and a longtime friend.
Whiting pushed people into getting involved by going to caucuses, ringing doorbells and giving money.
“He was a good, good fundraiser,” Brewer said. “When call-waiting came in, it was better than sliced bread to John. He could juggle calls like no one I’ve ever known. He was tenacious.
“You never wondered where John was on any issue.”
One of those issues was property rights.
“He just felt everybody should have the right to do what he saw fit to do with his own land,” said Steve Whiting.
Whiting twice ran for county commissioner but lost both contests. Still, he worked the system, often calling legislators with advice on issues that concerned him.
In 2002, the Mesa County Republicans gave Whiting and his wife a plaque for their dedication.
Whiting was also a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
John Whiting was born in Salt Lake City on Jan. 13, 1933, and moved with his family to Arizona.
He graduated from high school in Holbrook, Ariz., where he met Lois Chatterley. At the time, he was playing sax in a dance band, said their daughter Selinda Landes. They married on Dec. 19, 1950.
Whiting worked with his grandfather, Ralph E. Whiting, at the family lumber yard in Mesa, Ariz., and then joined his three brothers in a dairy farm business there.
The family sold the dairy farm and moved to Grand Junction, where they bought the Hanging W Ranch.
In addition to his wife, daughter and son, Whiting is survived by another daughter, Lisa Lambert of Mesa County; four other sons: Eugene Whiting of Mesa County, Ralph Whiting of Orem, Utah, Gary Whiting of Mesa, Ariz., and Craig Whiting of Spokane, Wash.; and 37 grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
