Former Modesto Mayor Whiteside, champion of valley and thoughtful growth, dies at 78
Carol Whiteside, a former Modesto mayor, founder of the Great Valley Center, and one of the region’s biggest champions has died. She was 78 years old.
Her sons, Brian and Derek, said she died peacefully in her sleep Friday morning in her Corvallis, Ore., home from complications from a stroke she suffered in March 2019. Her sons moved her to her second home in Oregon in April 2020 so she could be closer to family.
Whiteside was preceded in death by her husband, John, a retired Stanislaus County Superior Court judge. He died in July 2018 at the age of 75. Besides her two sons, her survivors include four grandchildren and her brother, Gerald Gordon.
Whiteside’s long career in public life took her from from the school board to City Hall and Sacramento. She served in Republican Gov. Pete Wilson’s administration from 1991 to 1997 before founding and serving as the first president of the nonprofit Great Valley Center.
In its heyday, the Modesto-based center focused on bettering the entire Central Valley, the 18-county region that stretches from Redding to Bakersfield. Whiteside served as the center’s president for about a decade before stepping down.
Under her leadership, the center was the only organization that highlighted the entire Central Valley, an often forgotten and neglected part of the state. When she announced she was leaving the center, then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger thanked Whiteside “for her work on behalf of the valley.”
The center in recent years has retrenched and has a new name (American Leadership Forum — Great Valley Chapter) and focuses on developing leaders in the three-county Northern San Joaquin Valley.
Focused attention on the Central Valley
“She made it into the first real institution that called attention to the disparities in the Central Valley,” said Mike Lynch, a longtime Modesto political consultant who served as the center’s chief operating officer from roughly 2003 to 2007. “ ... No one else had that vision.”
Modesto City Manager Joe Lopez said this in a statement: “Carol was known throughout the state and among influential policy makers at all levels of government as being a pioneering public servant. ... Mayor Whiteside was an asset to Modesto, and we owe a debt of gratitude to her family for sharing her with us.”
Whiteside stayed active after leaving the Great Valley Center, working as a consultant in public policy and public affairs.
“She was truly one of the early (female) leaders,” Brian Whiteside said. “I think that’s an important part of her legacy. She certainly paved the way for other women to follow her.”
Lynch said there are few people who are as smart, creative, tough, curious, stubborn, brilliant and bold as Whiteside. “I think everyone who had the opportunity to work with her closely walked away saying, ‘Oh my gosh.’ ... She was just a wonder to behold.”
He said her interests encompassed everything from esoteric public policy to the qualities of various backyard tiles. But he said Whiteside also was interested and concerned about people.
“She really cared for people,” he said, “and not just the governor and senator but the person who worked at the coffee shop. She knew them by name. She knew everyone.”
Without a vision, city just fixes potholes
Whiteside’s political legacy includes the opening of Modesto Centre Plaza — the city convention center — in 1989. Supporters say it has been an important piece in downtown’s rebirth, but detractors say it has been a drain on the city’s budget and never met expectations.
And as mayor Whiteside achieved rare political consensus for Village I, though the east Modesto development’s reality did not match its original vision of a self-contained community with its own housing, shopping and employment. Village I would feature old-fashioned homes with porches, plazas, stores, libraries and meeting centers.
Village I developed into a traditional subdivision after subsequent city leaders chipped away at its original vision more than a dozen times over such concerns as its cost and the need to jump-start development.
As a councilwoman and mayor, Whiteside consistently pushed a planned, controlled approach to growth, and she championed the village concept that espouses whole planned communities as opposed to single subdivisions.
“If your vision is only to fix potholes, in 10 years you’ll still be only fixing potholes,” Whiteside said in a 2000 Bee profile of her.
She was elected to the City Council in 1983 after serving on the Modesto City Schools board for one term. She was elected mayor in 1987 and left in 1991 with about six months remaining in her term to join Gov. Wilson’s administration.
Whiteside served as the California Resources Agency assistant secretary from 1991 to 1993 and then as Wilson’s director of intergovernmental affairs from 1993 to 1997.
Wilson was quoted in The Bee’s 2000 profile of Whiteside saying that “her skills, her ability and — I’ll use a word I don’t use lightly — her vision for both state and local government and the relationship between them prompted me to take advantage of her talents. She was ideally equipped by temperament and reputation. I think the state benefited. I know I did.”
Taught gourmet cooking in the 1970s
The profile described Whiteside as a hardworking, focused and driven star. But her admirers said she was genuine and listened to everyone, no matter where that person landed on an issue. They also said she was fun-loving and a great friend, especially in times of need.
Her sons said Whiteside taught a gourmet cooking class in the 1970s, and they believe it was through a Modesto’s parks and recreation program. They remember because they were the beneficiaries of her culinary experiments. They said she also was a great entertainer.
Whiteside succeeded Peggy Mensinger as mayor.
Mensinger was Modesto’s first female mayor since the city charter took effect in 1911, according to Bee archives, and served from 1979 to 1987. She endorsed Whiteside in her run for mayor. Modesto is about to have its third female mayor when former Modesto City Schools board member Sue Zwahlen takes office Tuesday after winning a mayoral runoff election.
Whiteside and Mensinger also were great friends, according to her sons.
The Whitesides came to Modesto in 1973 when John Whiteside went to work for the district attorney’s office as a prosecutor. They had met at the University of California at Davis. They both graduated in 1964, Carol Whiteside with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Her sons said services are pending, but those who wish to honor their mother’s memory can do so through donations to the Modesto Symphony Orchestra. Donations can be made on the MSO website, www.modestosymphony.org.
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This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Former Modesto Mayor Whiteside, champion of valley and thoughtful growth, dies at 78."
