Charles W Whalen Jr

Mr. Whalen, a former economics professor and state legislator from Dayton, won election from Ohio’s Third District in 1966 and, on taking office, quickly moved to the forefront of liberal Republicans opposed to the war, a position he articulated forcefully as a member of the Armed Services Committee. Charles William Whalen Jr., known as Chuck, was born on July 31, 1920, in Dayton. He attended the University of Dayton, where he received a degree in business education in 1942. During World War II he served with the Army in the China, India and Burma theater. After earning a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard in 1946, he became vice president of the Dayton Dress Company, owned by his father. In the early 1950s he began teaching at the University of Dayton, where he became chairman of the economics department in 1962. He served in the state’s General Assembly for 12 years, writing the state’s first fair-housing law, before winning election to the House of Representatives in 1967. He retired in 1979, tired of the increasing friction with local party officials and Republican leaders in Washington, who found him too liberal. He also expressed frustration with Congress as an agent for change. After leaving office, he became a Democrat. Mr. Whalen, who lived in Bethesda, Md., is survived by his wife and their six children, Charles, of Delray Beach, Fla.; Daniel, of Washington; Edward, of Reston, Va.; Joseph, of Lambertville, N.J.; Anne McLindon of Bethesda; and Mary Scherer of Brambleton, Va.; and seven grandchildren.