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Dick Whittington
Biography
[EPA press release - September 18, 1981]
Dick Whittington, a veteran of 24 years in Texas state and local environmental affairs, was sworn in today as the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 6 office, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
"Dick Whittington has a wealth of experience to draw on in managing the agency's regional affairs," said EPA Administrator Anne M. Gorsuch. "In almost a quarter of a century of service in state and local government, he has had extensive management responsibilities in a variety of environmental areas. He also has worked closely with the top management of environmental agencies in other states through the leadership positions he has occupied in professional associations."
He was sworn in by Deputy Administrator John W. Hernandez, former dean of engineering at New Mexico State University.
Whittington was deputy director of the Texas Department of Water Resources from 1977 until assuming his new EPA position. He managed the water quality, solid waste and water rights programs for the department.
At a predecessor agency, the Texas Water Quality Board, he served as deputy director, field operations director and field operations chief engineer from 1967 to 1977.
He was with the Texas State Department of Health for eight years, from 1953 to 1956 and again from 1962 to 1967 in the regional sanitary engineering field office, which was responsible for environmental work on public water plants, river sanitation surveys, and solid waste disposal systems.
At Millwee and Associates, a Houston engineering consulting firm, Whittington was a partner from 1966 to 1962 and an engineer from 1956 to 1959.
He was director of public works for the city of Liberty, Texas, from 1959 to 1961. Solid waste disposal and management of sewage treatment plants were among his responsibilities.
Whittington received a B.S. in civil engineering in 1953 and an M.S. in environmental health engineering in 1969 from the University of Texas at Austin.
He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas, has been president and vice president of the National Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators, director of the Texas Water Utilities Association and chairman of the wastewater committee, Conference of State Sanitary Engineers.
Whittington, 53, is a native of Liberty County, Texas, and a veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers. He is married and is the father of two children.