- December 4, 2025
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If you never talked to Jim Whitman, you probably heard him singing.
The “songmeister” of the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key grew up in the home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — Cleveland.
He was never shy in sharing his musical prowess with the community.
He would sing at Kiwanis meetings, perform at the annual Lawn Party and get on stage with Eddie Tobin at Euphemia Haye. Music was a huge part of his life. He died Sept. 7 at the age of 77.
“It was so much a part of who he was,” said his wife, Deborah Di Carlo. “He would wake up and say ‘Oh I was dreaming about this song.’ He would dream music.”
Around town, he was known as Dr. Jim.
Earning his medical degree in 1977, he specialized in psychiatry during his residency at Duke University, which he completed in 1982. He then returned to Wisconsin, where he met his future wife, Di Carlo. One of their first dates was an instance where psychiatry and music intersected. At the time, Whitman was working at the Mendota Mental Health Institute, which held criminals deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial.
“He always went and sang Christmas carols with the folks on his unit. He would bring his guitar and sing Christmas carols, and so I went. He didn’t tell me much about it,” Di Carlo remembers. “We went through one locked gate, and then another locked gate, and then a third locked gate. I didn’t know and thought it was interesting. After we sang Jingle Bells, he explained to me a little bit more about who we were singing to.”
Di Carlo said Whitman wanted to help people through his work. He was in psychiatry units at jails and hospitals for most of his career.
“He wanted to stop suffering,” Di Carlo said.
Music was almost always part of his life. He was in a rock band in high school, the keyboardist and lead singer for “The What Four.”
He knew piano, guitar, harmonica, kazoo — but his most used instrument was his voice. He lent it to the Kiwanis club at every meeting, performing a patriotic tune after the Pledge of Allegiance. He was a member of the club for 20 years.
“Jim combined this civic commitment with his generosity of spirit, his concern for others, and his unwavering dedication to our club,” Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key president Michael Garey said in an email. “Longboat Key has lost a great citizen and we have lost a great friend.”
He was a regular at Town Hall, attending almost every commission meeting. When he returned, Di Carlo said he would type up a recap of the actions taken at the meeting and send it out in a newsletter to residents of his neighborhood, Sleepy Lagoon. Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier said Whitman was a reliable presence in the front row of every commission meeting and was surprised to not see him at the Sept. 8 meeting.
“If a community were to invent the perfect gadfly — in the best sense of the word — it would be Jim,” Schneier said in an email. “He represented Sleepy Lagoon and the entire town with grace and humor. I think he was the only member of the public to sing to the Commission — something about paving paradise and putting up a parking lot.”
The song, of course, is Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell.
Di Carlo said Whitman was well studied, staying up to date on the latest in health and environmental technology and studied Buddhism. Di Carlo, a yoga teacher who also studies Eastern religion, could relate. She says he will be remembered for his contributions to the community and for brightening the rooms he was in with his talented vocal range. He was always on pitch, and raising the mood.
“What doesn’t lighten your heart but singing?” Di Carlo said.
A celebration of life will be held for Whitman in January, Di Carlo said.
