Musician, composer, educator. Legendary director of the Morehouse Glee Club and the Head of Music at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. A giant in the area of chorale music who brought the Morehouse Glee Club to international prominence as its director for more than 30 years. He, also created an immense variety of musical arrangements and published numerous articles and chapters in books. His well-known compositions include "Guide My Feet," "I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me," "The Lily of the Valley," "God Is A Good God," and "Sweet Jesus." He is also uncle to well-known jazz sax man Kirk Whalum. His musical talent, which was evident, was nurtured at a young age by his parents. Whalum graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, Tennessee and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College in 1952, the Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1953, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Iowa in 1965. The University of Haiti conferred upon him the Doctor Honoris Causa in 1968. After joining the faculty of Morehouse College in the fall of 1953, Dr. Whalum was appointed Director of the Morehouse College Glee Club, which earned national and international acclaim during his 30 plus years of leadership. In spite of numerous offers of positions at major college and universities, he chose to remain at Morehouse where he spent his entire professional career and achieved an enviable record as a professor, director of Band and Glee Club, Chairman of the Music Department, and Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Music. He was elected Faculty Representative to the Morehouse Board of Trustees and the National Alumni Association. He was also a Merrill Faculty Travel-Study Grant Abroad recipient and a Danforth Fellow. Whalum achieved international recognition as teacher, organist, conductor, musicologist, arranger, composer, author and lecturer; and he traveled extensively throughout the United States and abroad. He performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as an organ soloist in 1968, and he prepared the chorus for the world premiere of the opera in 1972. During that same year, he took the Glee Club on a State Department tour of five countries in West and East Africa. He also prepared the Morehouse College Glee Club and the Atlanta University Center Community Chorus for numerous appearances with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and he conducted at major music centers, including the Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. Through his involvement in and contributions to the community, he reached legendary fame. He organized and directed the Atlanta University Center Community Chorus (now The Wendell P. Whalum Community Chorus) and co-directed the Morehouse-Spelman Chorus. Because he was always extremely interested in quality church music, he accepted positions as organist-choirmaster for several Atlanta churches. He was constantly selected as a music consultant, as a member of evaluation committees, as a conductor or workshops, and as a lecturer throughout the United States and abroad. He held memberships on advisory boards of numerous music and civic organizations. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, American Guild of Organists, National Humanities Faculty, National Society of Literature and the Arts, Music Educators National Conference, Georgia Folklore Society, Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and the Intercollegiate Musical Council. In 1982, the Wendell P. Whalum Organ in the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College was dedicated to him. Whalum died at age 55 from a heart attack.