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Longtime Pro-Am volunteer to be missed, but not forgotten

Published 7/28/2009 in Pro-Am

By BRETT MARSHALL

bmarshall@gctelegram.com

There were two times each year Bob Whippo was out of connection with the rest of the world.

One came at budget planning where the self-proclaimed "bean counter" would disappear to prepare the Area Mental Health Center annual expenditures in his role as chief financial officer.

The second, and perhaps more enjoyable time of his "disconnect," came the last week of July and the first weekend of August — during the annual Southwest Kansas Pro-Am tournament in Garden City.

The Pro-Am turns 30 this year but Whippo, a mainstay of the behind-the-scenes group of volunteers, won't be in attendance. After battling valiantly for more than five years, the 57-year-old Whippo succumbed to Stage IV renal cell kidney cancer Nov. 11.

"It's just going to be so different this year," said Whippo's wife, Jill. "He had a passion for the Pro-Am and he'd just pretty much disappear from the rest of his life for a couple of weeks. You could always tell that it was golf in July."

But the Pro-Am was more than just a numbers game for Whippo. He played in the tournament and enjoyed the camaraderie of the other people.

"He enjoyed being out there, playing in it amongst the people," Jill said. "He knew so many people and I think he enjoyed helping make the tournament tick."

Larry Jenkins, director of the Intensive Care Unit at St. Catherine Hospital and the tournament's beneficiary, said he met Whippo his junior year in college.

"Bob helped me get my first job here at the hospital," Jenkins said. "We ended up going to the same church and Bob was just always involved in everything. He loved to help others."

Jill said Bob would not enjoy the recognition he will be receiving this year.

"He would likely say, 'I'm just one of the many that helps the tournament,'" Jill said. "He loved being involved with the pairings, the team assignments, the scoring and the payouts to the players. If it involved numbers you could count on Bob having a good time."

Bob's two children from his first marriage — Lucas, 23, and Aubrey, 20 — will do the honor of presenting the Pro-Am champion the winner's check on Sunday.

"I think we were really honored when (Pro-Am tournament coordinator) Beth (Koksal) called me to let me know that they wanted the kids to do the presentation," Jill said. "They were both premature and Lucas spent a month in the NBICU. This has been a special place for the family. It's the only unit of its kind between Wichita and Denver so it is a great service to people in this part of the state."

Jill, who is a social worker at St. Catherine, said that spending time with families has always been an important part of the family's role with the NBICU.

"The support provided by the community, the commitment of the Pro-Am to this part of the hospital, all has meant so much to us and to so many other families," Jill said. "The success of the NBICU is directly attributable to the Pro-Am and it has been priceless to so many families."

It was back in 2003 when Bob was diagnosed with the Stage IV Renal Cell cancer. Doctors then gave him about three to four months to live. He would extend that time frame to more than five years.

"I think perseverance is the one word I'd use to describe Bob with respect to the illness," Jill said. "He worked for those years despite the illness and worked up until August of last year (2008). Even then, he still had a lot of clarity in his ability to think and be active. I'm the one that wanted to buy the ticket on the slow boat to China but he wanted to keep things normal and routine. He just didn't want to focus on the illness and let it consume the other parts of his life."

Whippo, who grew up in Seminole, Texas, received his bachelor's degree in business and accounting from Texas Tech University.

The 2008 Pro-Am was the first event Whippo had missed due to the fact he was undergoing treatment at the Salmans Cancer Center in Dallas.

"I think it was hard for him to miss it," Jill said. "But the fact he wasn't going to be able to play and be in the capacity he had, made it okay. He didn't want to be on center stage and he was comfortable being 100 percent on the sidelines but doing something important for the event."

One of the people affiliated with the Pro-Am for 17 years was former Buffalo Dunes golf professional Paul Parker, who served as Tournament Chairman for several years and worked side-by-side with Whippo.

"When (the Executive Committee) asked me to take over as chairman, I didn't know how to turn on a computer," Parker said. "Bob was the computer mind. The first year we worked together we did most everything manually but we wanted it to be more professional. We had to build our own (software) program and Bob had somebody do that at St. Catherine. It printed scorecards, organized the ABCD amateur players and placed them with a pro. I just sat there amazed at what they had done."

Parker said in those early years they would run the tournament headquarters out of a small closet at The Golf Club at Southwind. Eventually, they moved into an RV that was placed in the club's parking lot.

"We were away from everybody, but there were extension cords and all sorts of electrical hookups coming out to the RV from the clubhouse," Parker said. "Once, there were so many electrical hookups that we blew a circuit and didn't have any air conditioning in the RV. It was as hot as it could be. Now, they've got a nice big RV with good air conditioning. Bob just had a lot to do with improving the tournament in so many ways it would be hard to focus on just one area."

Shea Sinclair and Lynn Schoonover served as tournament coordinators for several years before moving into other positions in the Garden City Community. Both had close working relationships with Whippo and had their own recollections of the "man behind the scenes."

"He was such a wonderful person and made everybody feel comfortable," said Sinclair, who was coordinator from 1995-2000. "Paul was detailed and wanted everything to be perfect. Bob was more laid back. They were like brothers who argue, but argue good naturedly. They banter they had back and forth created a hilarious relationship."

For Schoonover, now Executive Director of the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce and tournament coordinator from 2001-2007, the memory of Whippo will not soon be forgotten.

"When I started with the tournament, Bob was already a good friend," Schoonover said. "The tournament was special because of Bob's kids having come through the NBICU. Anything he did, he put his heart and soul into it. I remember when Bob had Dale (Scott) just whip out the program for the tournament, both he and Paul were just amazed at how much quicker they could get things done."

Bev Glass, Executive Director of Garden City Downtown Vision, Inc., served as the tournament coordinator in the early 1990s (1991-94) and said Whippo helped guide her through the difficulty of organizing an event of which she had no prior knowledge.

"I knew nothing about golf, didn't know the terminology at all, so I posed a big problem for Bob," Glass joked. "He had a running commentary with me about golf terms meant. He had to coach me, but it helped that I was a good organizer. He just said, 'that won't cut it here!' so I knew I had to learn as much as possibly could."

After Parker left Buffalo Dunes in 2004, he returned the following year from the Phoenix area to Garden City.

"I think when I saw Bob that next year I could just see how he lived it," Parker said. "He had his heart and soul in it and I saw the passion that he had inside. I remember in that final round we drove around on a cart and it was truly a wonderful experience and a memory I will always cherish. It was the last time I saw him."

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