Whitmore was trained as a pharmacist at the
University of California, San Francisco. He served in the Air Force as an aeromedical evacuation officer and later worked as a pharmacist. Whitmore was a lifelong environmental activist on behalf of wilderness preservation, such as promoting the establishment of the
Kaiser Wilderness in 1976. He lobbied for passage of the
California Wilderness Act of 1984, which he later described as establishing "the longest stretch of de facto wilderness in the lower 48 states." Whitmore previously beat cancer. He died from complications subsequent to
COVID-19 in
Fresno, California, on January 1, 2021, at the age of 89. == References ==