He amassed a unique collection of antique scientific instruments that he later donated to found the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge in 1944.
He spent the rest of his career there, rising to become Managing Director of the firm and later its Chairman.
The collection formed the basis for the University's Whipple Museum of the History of Science, and has been displayed publicly on the same site since 1959.
Whipple was keen that both the Museum and the Whipple Library play an active role in the teaching of history and philosophy of science, and both have remained at the centre of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge.
Robert Whipple had a younger brother, Francis, a meteorologist who, like his father, served as Superintendent of Kew Observatory.