Hugh Dave Whitener, Jr.
September 14, 1944 – September 14, 2014

It is with great sadness, but with immense respect and admiration that South Carolina real estate lawyers, in conjunction with a host others, prepare to say farewell to Dave Whitener, who died this week after a long battle with cancer.

Dave was the consummate lawyer-educator who taught, mentored, nurtured and molded many of us in the practice of transactional law. He was a University of South Carolina School of Law Platinum Compleat Lawyer as well as an Adjunct Professor at that treasured school for 24 years. He was the ideal professor in that his love for the law was only exceeded by his love for students. He never taught from a theoretical ivory tower, but from a concrete point of view, grounded in decades of practical experience. As a result, he was awarded the school’s Excellence in Teaching and Distinguished Service Award.

Dave was an entertaining and engaging seminar speaker. A group of real estate lawyers can recite many of his best stories that were told well and often and always with a sense of humor.

He was a protector of our practice. Many of us remember the seminar several years ago when he first began speaking about “The Palmetto Logs”, a list of authorities beginning with the South Carolina Constitution and meandering through State v. Buyers Service Co., Inc., and its progeny. He encouraged us to use The Palmetto Logs to protect our practice from those who participate in the unauthorized practice of law, those who demean our practice, and those who seek to take it away from us.

We extend our condolences to our friend and Dave’s wife and law partner, Trisha Wharton Whitener, and to all of Dave’s family. And we send to them a word of appreciation for sharing him with us.