Jim Whelan, the former mayor of Atlantic City, died suddenly last week. Whelan recently had surgery for kidney cancer, but was on the road to recovery, when felled by a massive heart attack at his home in the city.
Whelan, who was the current state senator representing Atlantic City, was from Philadelphia originally, but spent his summers in the Boardwalk town. He was a lifeguard in his teen years, became a championship swimmer at Temple University, and later became a teacher in the city’s school system. He ran for city council in the early 1980s, and was elected mayor in 1989. He served three terms as mayor until being defeated in 2001. He then served in the state Assembly from 2005 to 2007, when he was elected to the state Senate.
Whelan was elected mayor in a landslide because it had become clear by time that casino gaming was not the panacea that everyone had assumed it would be, and his platform of using money from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) to grow the attractions of the city was widely accepted. During his term, Whelan participated in the approval and construction of the Walk, an outlet mall developed by the Cordish Companies in the middle of the city; the connector project that links the Atlantic City Expressway with the Marina district where construction was under way on what would become the Borgata casino, today the most successful casino in the city; and a baseball stadium that is currently vacant, but was home to the Atlantic City Surf of the independent Atlantic League for more than 10 years.
Whelan’s enduring contribution to Atlantic City, however, will be his passion for the city and his advocacy for everything that would benefit the city. He worked diligently with then-state Senator Bill Gormley to bring benefits to Atlantic City and be able to market the city beyond the northeast U.S.
