Whitney earned his pilots license when he was 15 years old in Baton Rouge, his hometown. As a boy he was extremely popular; the Drum Major for the Catholic High School marching band. According to his family he was a true southern gentleman to the core and one who had many young ladies vying for his attention. When he graduated high school he wanted to fly for the US Army Air Corp. However, they required 2 years of college, so he went to Canada and joined the RCAF.
When his plane went down off the coast of Savary Island, BC, a woman living in Powell River saw his plane in distress and penned a poem in his honor, called SOLO FLIGHT. Whitney's only sibling passed in 2008 at the age of 85. His father Whitney Philip Sr. passed in 1968 at the age of 77 and his mother, Adele Aucoin passed away in 1989 at the age of 97.