Mark A. Whittinghill showed his toughness as a quarterback, successful businessman and winner of his share of childhood scraps, but it was his humility and warmth that made him beloved, friends and family say.
“He was probably one of the most caring, generous people I ever met in my life,” said Lane Tech High School head coach Rich Rio, an assistant coach when Mr. Whittinghill led the team to the Public League title in 1977.
“When he played on the championship team, he was basically the glue that kept everyone together,” Rio said, “and as he progressed through life he was the same type of person.”
Mr. Whittinghill, 45, died of heart failure Sunday, June 18, at his Park Ridge home, said his older brother, Robert.
He was co-owner of Sprague Distributing Co., which passes out fliers door to door for businesses and employs 75 people.
He was also an assistant coach at Lane Tech, which will honor him next season by putting his initials and his No. 17 on every helmet, Rio said.
Growing up in Chicago’s Little Italy, Mr. Whittinghill was the best athlete around–not to mention the most energetic, his brother said.
“He was a little bit of a roughneck, kind of hyperactive,” he said. “Even in grade school he was always the leader of his group. … He was alpha male-ish.”
Longtime friend Mark Valentino said youths in other neighborhoods would sometimes take exception when Mr. Whittinghill and his crew would come in for a game of football or basketball and win easily.
“He was a tough kid, but I never saw him start a fight with anyone,” Valentino said. “But if any of his friends were in trouble he was the first one into the fray.”
After graduating from Lane Tech in 1978, he went to Northern Illinois University to play football, but was injured and had to give up the sport.
After working in construction and odd jobs, he and Sam Baldassano, a family friend, started distributing fliers out of a borrowed station wagon in 1982, Valentino said. In 1994, they merged with Sprague Distributing, which operates from Waukegan to Indiana.
“He was a throwback to the old days, a fellow who wasn’t afraid to work hard and did everything he said he was going to do,” Valentino said. “He would get up at 3 a.m. to drive trucks.”
His brother said he treated employees like they were family.
“He turned his street sense and his family values to his business approach, which is why, I think, his business worked,” his brother said.
“He cared deeply for people and made deep connections not only with his partners and his employees but with his clients.”
Mr. Whittinghill was known to befriend the homeless and delivered food baskets to families in the Robert Taylor Homes, Valentino said.
“He knew people from all over,” said Valentino, adding that 1,000 people attended a visitation Friday.
Mr. Whittinghill also was a music buff who owned thousands of CDs and marked memories with songs, said his younger brother, Richard.
“He would put something on and say, `Remember this?'” Richard Whittinghill said. “He loved everything from country to R&B to disco. He would even go down to Tom Jones, if needed, to remember [our] father,” Robert, who died in 1982.
Other survivors include his mother, Annabelle; and three daughters, Gabrielle, Kaitlyn and Amanda.
Services have been held.
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dgibbard@tribune.com
