William A. Whiteside Jr., longtime labor attorney, volunteer leader, and star athlete, has died at 93

William A. Whiteside Jr., 93, of Ocean City, retired labor attorney and head of the labor and employment law department at Fox Rothschild, tireless volunteer leader for the Police Athletic League and Wissahickon Skating Club, former star athlete and coach at La Salle College High School, and veteran, died Sunday, Dec. 4, of cardiopulmonary arrest at his home.

Born and raised in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Mr. Whiteside graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, now Penn Carey Law, in 1954 and, beginning in 1956, worked for 40 years at a firm that became Fox Rothschild in 1960. Among his many longtime clients was Community College of Philadelphia, which he represented almost from its founding in 1964 until his retirement in 2001.

A 1946 graduate of La Salle, he was an all-star quarterback and safety on the football team, a member of the crew team that won a national championship, and was named the school’s top student athlete at his graduation. Later, he founded and was the first coach of the school’s ice hockey team and served on La Salle’s board of trustees and Hall of Athletes selection committee.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame in 1951, was a backup quarterback and defensive back on its 1949 undefeated national championship football team, and was awarded a silver medal in 1950 for being “outstanding in military achievement, scholastic achievement, and character” as a junior in the school’s Air Reserve Officers Training Corps.

After law school, he served in the Air Force from 1954 to 1956, rose to first lieutenant, and worked in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

Born Feb. 23, 1929, William Anthony Whiteside Jr. was attracted to music as a teenager, played drums, and frequented jazz clubs in New York. At Notre Dame, he even played a set with Harry James when the trumpet-playing band leader and his orchestra visited the campus.

He met Eileen Ferrick, also from Germantown, on the boardwalk in Ocean City. They married in 1954, lived in Lafayette Hill and Cheltenham Township, and had sons Bill III, Mike, Gump, and Rick and daughters Mary and Muffin. His wife and son Rick died earlier.

Mr. Whiteside liked to travel, and the family took trips to New England, Canada, and elsewhere, and rafted three times in the Grand Canyon. He and his wife attended Broadway musicals, and he completed a 75-mile bicycle ride at age 75.

His son Gump played ice hockey at Rochester Institute of Technology in the 1980s, and Mr. Whiteside became so friendly with the coach, athletic director, and president that he was eventually asked to serve as chairman of the school’s board of trustees.

“My father had no aspirations in Rochester other than to be an avid fan and a supportive father,” said his son Bill. “But his enthusiasm and personality naturally led to a much deeper immersion. I never heard my dad use these specific words, but one of the big lessons I learned from him is: Don’t be a bystander.”

Mr. Whiteside was also instrumental in forming a joint educational venture between RIT and the government of Croatia in 1997, and he became a trustee for the American College of Management and Technology in Dubrovnik and Zagreb, now RIT Croatia. In 2003, he and his wife won the Nathaniel Rochester Society’s award for outstanding service to RIT, the first winners from outside the Rochester area.

He was a passionate leader and onetime Man of the Year for the Police Athletic League of Philadelphia, president of Notre Dame’s Philadelphia Alumni Club, on the board of directors and a charter member of the hall of fame at the Wissahickon Skating Club, and president of the board of trustees at Germantown Academy. While at Penn, he coached its 150-pound football team.

A local celebrity at the Jersey Shore, he was interviewed by the OCNJ Daily before the Super Bowl in 2018 and correctly predicted an Eagles victory over the New England Patriots. “If [the Eagles] show up and play as they have in the playoffs, its going to be a good outcome,” he said.

He moved permanently to Ocean City after his wife died in 2008, and his family said in a tribute: “Bill loved his family dearly and cherished his roles as a husband, father, and grandfather. He truly embraced everything that life had to offer.”

In addition to his children, Mr. Whiteside is survived by 11 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and a sister. Two sisters died earlier.

Visitation with the family is scheduled for 9 to 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 9, at St. Genevieve Church, 1225 Bethlehem Pike, Flourtown, Pa. 19031. A funeral Mass is to follow.

Donations in his name may be made to the Police Athletic League of Philadelphia, 3068 Belgrade St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19134.