1992 U.P. SPORTS HALL OF FAME Inductee, Stanley "Stan" W. Whitman, was Mather High School Coach in Munising, Michigan 1951-52 to 1953-54, (leading the Mustangs to the District C Basketball Championship in 1952 and to the U.P. Class B Basketball Championship in 1954), also Coach from 1955-56 to 1958-59.

John Tiernan wrote (8:48am, Jan 27, 2015):
"The nicest man I ever met."

Jonnie True wrote (11:33am, Jan 27, 2015):
"In High School (MHS), I use to babysit for his girls. Just a wonderful family."

A 1941 graduate of Crystal Falls High School, Stan was a WWII veteran, including three years as Tec 4 with the Army Medical Corps in the European Theatre, 21 months of that time in England (he loved England). He received his B.S. with honors in 1950 from NMU (then Northern Michigan College of Education), where he attended 1946-1950. While there, Stan wrote a column, "From the Locker Room," coached the John D. Pierce Training School's JV football team under the supervision of Vic Hurst in 1949, and received a letter of commendation for his part in managing the noon hour P.E. Program, 1949-50, for a larger number of children in a big range of ages with limited facilities at JDPTC -- all three activities for NMU. In 1948-49 he was on NMU's "B" or "second team" basketball squad under Coach Fred Martell (all athletics were under C.V. "Red" Money). He was a letter winner in both basketball and football at NMU. He served as coach and history teacher for a year after graduation at Onaway, MI.

Stan was a bachelor when he arrived in Munising in 1951, the same year as Coach Keith Forsberg, also a bachelor. Coach Forsberg met and married a Munising girl, Barbara Golenda, and Stan married Margaret Katherine Schenk of Gladstone on August 8, 1953. They had four daughters. Margaret, now 88, is a 40-year survivor of breast cancer without chemo or radiation. Peggy is a counsellor at Adrian High School, Adrian, MI (2015). As of January 2013, their family has grown to ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, the third arrived in April 2013. Stan has a grandson on the NMU Basketball Team -- Spencer Huss -- and another grandson (Spencer's brother), Adam J. Huss, on the NMU Golf Team. They have an older brother, Tyler, who is an architect, and their parents are Joe & Denise Whitman Huss (a beautiful family!)

Stan served as boys' physical education instructor and as varsity basketball, football, and golf coach, succeeding Henry Lindeman of Channing in 1951. He also taught Modern History, Conservation, and Driver's Training at MHS. Stan was a major contender for "U.P. Coach of the Year" in 1954 (Iron Mountain's Joe Poisson won on the fifth ballot), but Stan was named "Coach of the Year," along with the Mustangs as "Team of the Year" and Ron Beauchine as "Player of the Year" by the Northern Michigan edition of "Our Sunday Visitor" at the First Annual Basketball Dinner given by the Munising Knights of Columbus in the K.C. Hall. In 1957, after a lowly 2-14 season against all Class B teams except Class C Gladstone and Loretto, the Mustangs conquered teams with better records for the District C Championship. The Munising News reported, "If ever Munising had a cousin this year (1957) in basketball, it was the Manistique Emeralds (both 1-14 for the season before Munising's second triumph over them, 57-44). Without their 'patsies,' the Mustangs would have experienced their first winless season in the GLC since its organization back in 1948."

Stan and Wally Ahlborn were both sportscasters of Mustang Basketball games in the MHS Gym back in the late 1950's, over WGON-AM.

Coach Whitman received his Master's Degree from the University of Michigan on a Teaching Fellowship in 1955. While at U of M, he did some part-time coaching at St. Thomas' Catholic School. He finished his Guidance course work at a Michigan State University summer session in 1959. That fall, he originated the MHS Guidance Program. The 1965 Torch was dedicated to Mr. Whitman, as he had retired from coaching in 1960 to become full time MHS Guidance Counselor. He founded the Munising Summer Recreation Program in 1956 and was its director for almost ten years. "Coach Dave Ghiardi took over the program for the last 28 years." (Written in 1994) Mr. Whitman was very active in community affairs, a member of the Lions Club, and was Chairman of the newly formed Harbor Commission in 1965.

"The students of Mather are proud to have known you and gratefully acknowledge your kindness and willingness to help and counsel in any and all situations. For your years of dedication to the students of Mather, we would like to express our appreciation by dedicating this year's 1965 Torch to you." -1965 Torch Staff

While coaching at MHS, Stan was an outstanding member of "Harry's Oilers," an independent semi-pro basketball team (contributing 23 points to Munising's 59-54 victory over Marquette's LS&I team in one upset).

In the Summer of 1953, Coach Whitman completed his sixth consecutive year (and continued on for at least one more year) as Waterfront Director of the Iron County Youth Camp, "Batawagama" on Indian Lake, an Extended Education Program described in newspaper headlines as the "Best Public School Camp in U.S." Mary Nebel's father, Wallace Cameron, the Gladstone Supt. of Schools, and Crystal Falls Supt. Ken Schultz were instrumental in the establishment of "Bat." Supt. Cameron was also director of the camp.

Stan began working for his Alma Mater, NMU, in 1966 as Director of Basic Education at the area training center, which is now NMU's Jacobetti Skill Center, and an NMU student from Munising remembers that he was working in the Admissions Office when she was there. He retired in 1986 from the NMU Athletic Committee and as Associate Registrar after 20 years of combined service.

Stan's father died of a ruptured appendix at the young age of 47, leaving his mother, Ina (Smolander) Whitman, alone to raise six children alone in Amasa, Iron County, Michigan, near Crystal Falls in the U.P. On the April 17, 1940 Census for Crystal Falls Township, we have Ina (47), widow, b. WI owning the same house where she and her family lived in 1935). She had a fifth grade education. Children are Evelyn (17), b. WI, tenth grade education; Stanley (15), b. MI (as are his younger siblings), 10th gr.; Thomas (13); Patricia (10); Frances (8); and Ina's oldest son, John (24), 8th gr., the family's breadwinner as a Laborer, WPA Road Project (he worked 44 weeks in 1939 for $300); his wife, Alice (20), b. MI (lived in another home in Crystal Falls in 1935), a high school graduate; and their baby daughter, Janice (1 month old), b. MI.

Ina's mother, Stan's maternal grandmother, died in 1896, after her parents and older sister, born June 1889, had immigrated from Finland, when Ina was four years old. Ina was born in Wisconsin in June, 1892, as was her younger brother, John "William" (Aug 25, 1894-Sep 13, 1961). Ina's father, John Smolander, and stepmother, Mary Myllykoski (changed to Kosky) Smolander (born in Finland), had eleven more children, all born in Wisconsin.