William J. Whalen

Who is William J. Whalen?

William Joseph Whalen was a nationally-known American non-fiction writer and an expert on comparative religion.

Whalen attended the University of Notre Dame and received degrees from Marquette and Northwestern. He was an information officer with the U. S. Navy during World War II and served on Saipan and Guam.

For over forty years Whalen worked at Purdue University as a professor of communication. From 1950 he also directed the publications program at that school and in 1960 helped found Purdue University Press.

Whalen, a Roman Catholic, authored or co-authored fifteen books and wrote over two hundred articles, pamphlets and encyclopedia articles. Much of his writing compares Catholicism with other beliefs.

He died in 2008 at the age of 82 in West Lafayette, Indiana. At his death, he was director emeritus of university publications and professor emeritus of communication.