Elaine Whitelaw

Elaine Whitelaw receiving the polio vaccine. 1957

           

            Elaine Whitelaw (1914-1992) was a nationally recognized leader of volunteers whose career with the March of Dimes spanned five decades, from 1943 to 1990. Ms. Whitelaw was born in New York City on November 21, 1914 and attended schools in Manhattan. She gained her B.A. (1934) at Smith College and M.A. at New York University’s School of Fine Arts. During the early years of World War II she worked with various war relief agencies and joined the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1943 to become National Director of Women’s Activities. Her first assignment was serving as point of contact for actress Mary Pickford, requested by President Franklin Roosevelt to become National Women’s Chairman for the March of Dimes. In her role as a leader of women volunteers, Ms. Whitelaw developed programs of response to polio epidemics, like the Polio Emergency Volunteers (PEVs), and initiated high-profile fund-raising events like the annual March of Dimes fashion show held at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City from 1945 to 1960.

Elaine Whitelaw and Janice Kissner, 1974.

            As National Director of Women’s Activities, Ms. Whitelaw had a natural talent for developing women in chapter and state leadership roles in communities across the United States throughout the 1950s and 1960s. She was a key coordinator of volunteers for the field trial of the Salk polio vaccine in 1954 and served to bridge the transition from the polio to the birth defects mission after 1958 with sustained efforts in volunteer recruitment, fund raising, and education. Through this period she actively managed a nationwide system of State Advisors, holding an annual conference for this elite group of volunteers from 1945. She played a leading role in Mothers March, often partnering with actress Helen Hayes (first National Mothers March Chair) and collaborating with national groups like the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.

 

            In the 1960s, Ms. Whitelaw campaigned for the building fund of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and helped to organize the first Volunteer Leadership Conference for the March of Dimes in 1964, which she continued to coordinate through 1980. During the American bicentennial celebrations in 1976 she kicked off a major fund-raising event, the Gourmet Gala, which featured prominent celebrities at cooking and dining events with food professionals such as Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey judging the results. The Gourmet Gala remained a popular and successful benefit for years in major cities across the United States.

 

Ms. Whitelaw became Vice President for Volunteer Services and then Special Assistant to the President in 1978 and worked closely with Jane Wyatt and Beverly Sills, both National Mothers March chairs. She orchestrated many appearances of Ms. Sills in dinners and concerts for birth defects prevention. Upon her retirement in 1990 the March of Dimes created the Elaine Whitelaw Annual Volunteer Service Award to honor exemplary volunteer service. In that year the New York Times featured her in a Living Section article, “Learning to Turn Dimes into Millions” (October 17, 1990), styling her the “grande dame of the March of Dimes.” Elaine Whitelaw died after a battle with cancer in 1992.

Today, March of Dimes continues to honor the legacy of Ms. Whitelaw. Its top volunteer service award bears her name. Winners of the "Elaine Whitelaw Volunteer Service Award" include:

2020	Andy Dahle	Illinois
2020	Arlene Cullum	California
2016	Ashley Turner	Tennessee
2015	Sue Brendel	Washington
2014	Rosemary Shatzman	Texas
2013	Randy Pond	Publix
2012	Dr. Bill Sappenfield	Florida
2012	Dr. Brian Oshiro	California
2011	John Henry Felix	Hawaii
2011	Dr. Jay S. Greenspan	Pennsylvania
2010	William T. Barry	Illinois
2010	Vince Ford	South Carolina
2009	Sam Chevalier	New York
2009	Donna Zimmerman	Minnesota
2008	Gary Dixon	Texas
2007	Anthony Viviano	Michigan
2006	Debbie Sears	Illinois
2005	John Baker	South Carolina
2004	George McKerrow, Jr.	Georgia
2003	Richard Sullivan, Sr.	Massachusetts
2002	C. Jimmy Stewart III	Texas
2001	Rick Salwen	Texas
2000	Pete Keenan	National Capital Area
1999	Sylbia Kunst	Pennsylvania
1998	Liz Miller	Greater Kentucky
1997	Betty Connal	Virginia
1996	Dr. Donna O’Hare	New York
1995	Marion Palmer	Utah
1994	Bob Wehling Mary Greenwood	Ohio Texas
1993	Dr. Leonard and Pauline Graivier	Texas
1992	G. Brent Minor	Illinois