During his career, he conducted pioneering surveys that traced the spread of blindness in deprived areas in Sub-Saharan Africa.
He received his medical and graduate degrees from University of Virginia in 1965 under a dual program.
At Nyeri Provincial Hospital near Mount Kenya, he trained paramedics and clinical officers to combat eye diseases such as glaucoma and trachoma.
He married Suzanne Sellars of Atlanta, Georgia[4] and has two children: Eston Whitfield and Louisa Rendall.
Whitfield's cousin, Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, was president of Florida State University, president of the ABA (American Bar Association) in 1991–1992, and started CEELI- http://apps.americanbar.org/rol/europe_and_eurasia/- which has been successful at converting communist and socialist countries into democracies through the development of judicial systems and access to courts.