Charles Edward Whaley | Veteran ATCA member and Kentucky gentleman

Charles Edward Whaley | Veteran ATCA member and Kentucky gentleman

Charles Edward Whaley, long-term ATCA member, died Oct. 30, 2025 at the age of 97. Whaley was a journalist who covered education and the arts in the course of a seven-decade career.

He was born on February 29, 1928 in Williamstown, in Grant County, was valedictorian at Williamstown High School, and drum major of the marching band. A journalism scholarship funded his stint at the University of Kentucky where he excelled in many ways as editor of The Kentuckian yearbook, elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and recipient of other awards during his student career.

His journalism focus let him to U. S. Army service during the Korean War in the public information unit, an MA in journalism at Columbia University, and a 1954 Marshall Scholarship to study at the University of Manchester in England. He joined The Courier-Journal in 1950, covering Kentucky schools through desegregation, reviewed books, developed an expertise on Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury circle, and wrote about theater.

ATCA members who knew him during the years of ATCA attendance at the Humana Festival remember him fondly. Elizabeth Kramer noted that he “hosted ATCA members who arrived early at his Cherokee Triangle neighborhood home for cocktails during he 2014 annual conference held during the 28th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville.” Jeffrey Eric Jenkins recalled Charles during an earlier conference, and his grace and charm. “Charles was a wonderful man and added so much to our many gatherings in Louisville for the Humana Festival. When we held our national conference there in 2000, Charles was able to make sure that we were welcomed by the Governor’s office and the Mayor’s office.”

A “truly delightful gentleman” as recalled by many, and a valued ATCA member.

– Submitted by Martha Wade Steketee

Additional coverage:

October 31, 2025 Kentucky Lantern (Keith L. Runyon)