Doris C. Whittier papers, 1863-1990

Born 25 August 1900 in Olympia, Washington, Doris Callow Whittier was daughter of Arthur Lewis (A. L.) and Sara Troy Callow. The maternal side of Doris's family, the Troys, were a prominent pioneer family in Washington. Her mother was an early suffragette, and her uncle, John Weir Troy, was appointed Territorial Governor of Alaska in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her parents divorced sometime between 1909 and 1913, and her father later married to Effie Rasmussen. After high school Doris attended the University of Washington, where she was active in the drama club, and took courses at the newly founded Cornish School. In 1924, she married William Harrison Whittier (1889-1951) and moved to Greenville, Texas. Harrison was employed as a geologist with the Roxana Petroleum Company, and in this position he frequently traveled across the south and west investigating new drill sites. The couple had two children, Mary Martha and Merrill Daniel, and settled in Salt Lake City in the 1930s. Doris volunteered as a reader for the blind, a job she would keep until she retired in the 1970s. She died on 3 February 1993.