Dr. Howard Whitcraft: A Man Who Sought Perfection

November 7, 1938 – August 15, 2022

BY NORMAN FULKERSON

Howard Whitcraft was born in St. Louis, Missouri on November 7, 1938. By the time he got his bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Missouri in Rolla, his thirst for knowledge had blossomed. However, the practical sciences no longer interested Howard Whitcraft.

He wanted to pursue knowledge of the great questions about existence and being. So this avid seeker of Truth chose to study pure mathematics, which he considered to be closer to philosophy than almost any other field. The study of pure mathematics became a passion for him.

During this period, Dr. Whitcraft met Rosalie Rallo. At his death, they had been married for nearly fifty-nine years and had six children, all of which remained devout Catholics, due in large part to his example. They witnessed their father receiving Communion on an almost daily basis. He never let a day go by without praying the Holy Rosary in Latin, the language of the Church.

In the mid-1970s, he became acquainted with the writings of Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. He later traveled to São Paulo, Brazil, where he met Dr. Plinio and, in 1984, was received as a TFP member. Thus, the TFP became the center of his attention and ideas for the rest of his life. He encouraged his sons to become involved in the TFP, which was life-changing for the entire family.

Dr. Whitcraft was particularly interested in Prof. Plinio’s commentaries about the fulfillment of the prophecies of Fatima and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was enchanted when he found out that all TFP members were consecrated to Our Lady as a slave of love according to the method of Saint Louis de Montfort. He also took to heart the Five First Saturdays devotion, requested explicitly by Our Lady at Fatima.

On June 27, Dr. Whitcraft suffered a heart attack and spent his remaining weeks in a St. Louis hospital fighting for life. During that time, he was strengthened by the sacraments of the Church. Shortly before he died, he received the Apostolic blessing as Msgr. Eugene Morris recited the rosary with family members around his bed.

Days after his untimely death, his wife Rosalie recalled a day in the hospital two weeks before he passed, in which her husband kept repeating the Latin phrase “Assumptió Beátae Mariae Vírginis in cáelum” (Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven). While she did not understand what this meant, it was a great consolation afterward when she realized that her husband had passed away on the feast of the Assumption. ■