He graduated from Dartmouth College, in 1970, with a BA in history and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and he received an MS in journalism from Columbia University, in 1972.
He moved to The Boston Herald Traveler in 1970 for a full-time job as a writer and reporter.
He has served on various nonprofit boards, including the American Library in Paris, the Providence Public Library, the Public's Radio and the local chapter of the ALS Association.
He is acting board chairman (as of late 2023) of the American Agora Foundation, publisher of Lapham's Quarterly.
https://read.thebostonguardian.com/the-boston-guardian Whitcomb co-authored Cape Wind, an environmental and social-comedy book about Cape Wind, a planned offshore wind park in Nantucket Sound, and has edited and written parts of many other books, including fiction and nonfiction, and edited scripts for several documentary films.