Front page obituary for Henry S. Whitehead: 23rd November 1932, The Evening Independent, St. Petersberg, Florida.

I hadn’t heard before that he was a 32nd degree Mason (therefore, a Master Mason at the height of the Scottish rite), or that he only spent the winters in the Virgin Islands (on Santa Cruz).

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Dr H.S. WHITEHEAD
DUNEDIN MINISTER
CLAIMED BY DEATH

FRIEND OF ROOSEVELT, IN LINE FOR VIRGIN ISLE POST, WAS NOTED WRITER, LECTURER

The Rev. Dr. Henry Sinclair Whitehead, 50, author, traveler, lecturer, and probable choice of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt for governor-general of the Virgin Islands, died this morning at 6 o’clock at his home in Dunedin where he had been living for the past three years.

Dr. Whitehead graduated from Harvard university in 1904 with President-elect Roosevelt and was his close friend.

Funeral services will be conducted at St. Peter’s Episcopal church this city, Friday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock, In charge of the Rt. Rev. John D. Wing, D. D., Bishop of South Florida, assisted by Chaplain E. A. Edwards, rector of the church, and other clergy of the diocese. Temporary Interment will be made in a receiving vault at the Royal Palm cemetery. Arrangements are in charge of the John S. Rhodes Funeral home.

Dr. Whitehead was well known in this city, having supplied at St. Peter’s Episcopal church here for the past two summers. He is survived by his father, Henry H. Whitehead, 836 27th avenue north.

Dr. Whitehead came to Dunedin from New York City where he was curate of St. Mary’s church, Virgin of New York, for three years. He was also curate of the Church of Advent, Boston. Mass., for three years. In Dunedin be was priest in charge of the Church of Good Shepard.

Dr. Whitehead was born in Elizabeth, N.J., the son of Henry H. Whitehead and Mary McMullen Whitehead, the latter now dead.

Dr. Whitehead also graduated from the Berkley Divinity school of Littletown, Conn., and at one time was rector of the Trinity church of Bridgeport, Conn.

He spent nine winters in the Virgin Islands as acting archdeacon and became familiar with Island customs. Dr. Whitehead wrote short stories, occult fiction, boys’ stories, and several novels, many of them about the West Indies. One of his weird stories, entitled “The Passing of the God” won wide fame in London, England was lauded in a collection of the best weird stories of the world. He also achieved the selected list of the O. Henry Memorial award.

Dr. Whitehead was a member of the American Geographical society of Washington. D.C. and the Author’s Guild of America. He was a 32nd degree Mason and a member of the Harvard club. He was nationally known as a lecturer and writer.

He was an authority on boys’ camps and contributed to the Living Church of the Anglican Communion and the Commonweal of the Roman church.

Although Dr. Whitehead made his living as an author he was well known as an Episcopalian priest and a strong Anglo-Catholic.

His father and friends left this afternoon for Dunedin, accompanied by Chaplain Evan L Edwards, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal church here.

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Here’s a picture of Lovecraft’s sometime editor, ol’ Farnsworth Wright of Weird Tales. He was probably a few years into Parkinson’s Disease at that point. Scan via Leigh Blackmore, who has kindly just overhauled Farnsworth Wright‘s formerly weak Wikipedia page.

Love the idea that there was once an era when a tailored suit could be worn with a flat cap, without people pointing and staring. Bring it back 🙂