RIP: Rev. Dr. Issac Whittmon, Chicago-Based Pastor and GRAMMY-Nominated Gospel Artist

By Robert M. Marovich

The Journal of Gospel Music was informed by Eric Clark that the Rev. Dr. Issac Whittmon, Founder and Senior Pastor of Greater Metropolitan Church of Christ in Chicago, has passed away.

As a youth, Pastor Whittmon, born in Chicago in 1942, attended the Church of Divine Science at 26th and Michigan, not far from his family’s home at 215 East 26th Street. He first met James Cleveland at the Church of Divine Science when Cleveland, then a teenager, was serving as the church’s music minister. Whittmon and his two sisters were part of the Murphyettes, a gospel group his mother organized and named for the church’s pastor, Bishop Taylor George Murphy. Despite his young age, Whittmon also became a member of Willie Webb’s Southside Community Choir.

As a teenager, Whittmon joined Rev. Chester Batey’s Hyde Park Bible Church and became a member of the choir, which at the time was directed by Doris Sykes, accompanied on organ by Maceo Woods, and featured singers such as Melvin Smothers and Pearl McCombs. Woods left Hyde Park Bible Church in 1960 to form Christian Tabernacle Church, and while most of the choir went with him, Whittmon stayed at Hyde Park. Later, however, he moved to Bishop James L. Anderson’s Redeeming Church of Christ.

Around 1961, Whittmon was part of a male gospel group called the Clefs of Faith. Singing in the style of the Alex Bradford Singers, the Clefs consisted of Whittmon, Rev. Charles Fairchild, Cornelius O’Connor, Herman Ludlow, and Kenneth Gunn. The group recorded one single for the Josiah label.

In 1966, Whittmon founded the Greater Metropolitan Church of Christ on the city’s South Side. Eleven years later, he purchased a double garage on East 75th Street and turned it into a larger sanctuary for Greater Metropolitan’s membership. It remains the church’s home today.

After recording a single on Harold Freeman’s Righteous imprint, Whittmon and his church choir joined Savoy Records at the behest of Rev. James Cleveland, on whose Gospel Music Workshop of America board Whittmon served. Their first album together was 1975’s He’s Working It Out. Two years later saw Whittmon, Cleveland, and the Greater Metropolitan Church of Christ choir release The Lord is My Life. The album earned a GRAMMY nomination. The choir went on to record two more albums for Savoy in 1978 and 1982, but without Cleveland’s direct involvement. In the mid-1980s, Rev. Issac Whittmon & Company recorded an album for Atlanta International Records called It Makes the World Go Round and a live album for I AM Records in 1993.

In addition to his GMWA board service, Whittmon was founder and executive director of the Soft Sheen Gospel Choir and served as national president of the United Evangelical Churches of Christ, Inc., founded by Bishop James L. Anderson. Please keep Pastor Whittmon’s church family and many friends in your prayers. Homegoing services will be announced when available.