Major U.S. Authority On International Law

Marjorie W. Whiteman, 87, of Liberty Center, O., one of the nation’s outstanding authorities on international law, died Sunday in her home.

A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Miss Whiteman taught history in Napoleon High School before receiving her doctorate in international law from Yale Law School. She was the second woman to attend that school.

Miss Whiteman worked 40 years for the State Department in Washington, D.C. During that time she wrote the Whiteman Digest of International Law (1963-69), a 15-volume work that took 20 years to complete. Published by the State Department, the digest is only the fifth such published work since 1877 and is used today as textbooks in many universities.

Miss Whiteman served as assistant legal adviser and counselor in international law to 10 secretaries of state.

When Eleanor Roosevelt was the U. S. representative to the United Nations General Assembly, Miss Whiteman was her legal adviser.

When the Organization of the American States was formed in 1948, Miss Whiteman was a member of the United States delegation to the Pan American Congress in Bogota, Colombia.

She retired in 1970 and returned to her family home near here.

Surviving are her sisters. Helen L. Whiteman and Mrs. Gertrude Murdock.

Services will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow in Liberty Chapel United Methodist Church. The body will be in the Croll-Wright Mortuary, Liberty Center, after 2 p.m. today.