A few of note

 Several of my namesake have come up many times over the years. Here a are a few. In order to reduce the ambiguous nature of this site, I will try to refer to each Robert with the terms associated with them most (which will be difficult in some circumstances because some of us are identified only by a crime committed or a family survived). 

There are so many fun one-off stories that I'll highlight, but for now, here are a few of the more famous ones.

Japanese baseball author

If google hits correlate to fame, Robert "You Gotta Have Wa" Whiting is the most famous of us. He owns (and recently started redirecting) robertwhiting.com to his tokyojunkie.com blog. He's a journalist and author who focuses primarily on Japanese baseball. His most famous book, "You Gotta Have Wa" shows up on the google list regularly (though he's written several other books).

I think he would call New Jersey, California, and Japan his homes. More than an author, he used to work for the NSA, consulted on movies, and traveled the world with his wife. He even has his own wikipedia page. It makes sense that he gets a lot of press because he's a journalist.

Motorist who killed Dr. Ling Felce

Not all of us are famous for our field of work. In Oxfordshire, UK, this Robert is now serving an 8 year sentence for killing Dr. Ling Felce for driving a lorry while "uninsured and unqualified." The headlines started back in March of this year and the sentence only recently came out.

I feel for Dr. Felce's family and students. I've prayed for them.

This unqualified lorry driver also made me consider what would be written about me if I was distracted and didn't see a cyclist in a roundabout. What kind of crushing weight must it be to have a person's death on your conscience? And how much multiplied would weight be if I were unqualified, uninsured, and distracted, while the person killed was loved and respected by so many?

Police Officer in Norwich

Every once in a while, I see a headline for a crime and my heart jumps into my chest, "It's happened, someone with my name has defaced it, and we'll all have to live with it." But unlike the motorist, it's an article like this out of the greater Norwich area of the UK, where Robert the police officer is cleaning up the streets. From the scattered articles over the years, he does good work.

Why would you do that?

A brief introduction

My name is Robert Whiting--one of many. I grew up in Indonesia and Malaysia and moved to the United States for university. I learned, worked jobs, found love, began a family, and have done my best to study and follow in the footsteps of Jesus. I collect hobbies because I love the first steep part of the learning curve, and I often abandon a hobby when I catch sight of the long tail (with a few exceptions). 

History of observation

I've always known that there were other people in the world with my same name, but I didn't give it much thought until I tried to get a gmail address in high school. It wasn't until much later (2014) that I subscribed to the google search for my name. Every month since then, I receive an email from google with the latest changes to the search term "Robert Whiting."

Over the years, I've followed the publications, obituaries, discoveries, investigations, photo shoots, and more from all the Robert Whitings that make it to into the search giant. My wife thinks it a weird hobby, but I think it comes with many benefits.

Benefits of watching your name

What is the importance of a name? We find our identity wrapped up in our names. It is the primary way we introduce ourselves and when someone puts a defining mark on a name, it ripples out to everyone else with the same name.

There were many children who grew into adults with the same name as Adolf Hitler, but now, even one of those two names causes an association to rise in the mind of so much death and devastation. What about all the other Adolf Hitlers at the time? They had no control over what that man did (not only to the world) but to their shared name. Their name was swallowed up by that one mans legacy.

Rarely the same name can call two people to mind: Martin Luther. Both were pastors: One man led the Protestant reformation in 1517 and the other led the civil rights movement in 1955. 

Pondering the legacy of my own name has led me to ask many questions. Will I be the Robert Whiting that is remembered? Besides the name, how do we define who we're talking about?  What is an identity? Do I have the right to chastise another Robert for his misuse of "my" name?

I always had grand plans for impacting the world in a significant and positive way. I don't yet know what that will look like, but I want to make sure my name isn't soiled in the process--not that I can do anything about that.