Whit McColl's introduction to Oakdale was a memorable one. At the time of his arrival, cop Margo Hughes was assigned to a rape/murder case in her mother-in-law's neighborhood. Upon arriving at her mother-in-law's apartment, an exhausted Margo decided to settle in for a quick nap. Not long after, Whit arrived at the apartment of his new bride, Lisa. Seeming to see her in bed, he started stroking her hair only to come face to face with a complete stranger! The woman he met was, of course, Margo, Lisa's daughter-in-law. Upon seeing Whit, she immediately suspected that he was the wanted rapist and knocked him unconscious! By the time Whit awoke, Lisa had returned home and explained to Margo that Whit was her new husband. Though Margo apologized for her actions, an angry Whit wouldn't listen and demanded that she be thrown off the force while his oldest son, Brian, threatened to bring her up on charges. Thanks to her husband, Tom's, defense, Margo was re-instated at the force. Tom, already displeased that Lisa impulsively married a man she just met in Paris, was skeptical even more of his new stepfather when Whit warned him that no one got away with crossing him.

Later, Lisa learned that her ex-husband, Grant Colman, was ill and, to Whit's displeasure, she hurried to his side. While she was gone, Whit received an unwelcome visit by a woman named Charmaine L'Amour, who introduced herself as his wife! Apparently, years earlier, the pair had a drunken fling in Las Vegas and married. Though he tried to pay her off in order to get a divorce, she refused. Charmaine wanted the good life and so, introducing herself to Lisa as Whit's sister, she moved into the mansion with them. Meanwhile, Whit found himself caught up in a vendetta between two of his employees--Craig Montgomery and Steve Andropoulos. Craig wanted Steve out of the way, since Steve was an impediment to Craig having marital bliss with his wife, Betsy. In order to get rid of Steve, Craig stole some rare coins from Whit's collection and convinced Whit that Steve did it. Although Whit fell for it at first, and even rewarded Craig with a promotion; after a police search of Steve's room led to recovery of the coins, he soon realized that Craig, not Steve, knew the combination to his safe. Knowing he'd been double-crossed, Whit fired Craig.

Meanwhile, Whit's children were becoming a disappointment to him. Having raised Brian for a political life, he was outraged when Brian suddenly decided to forgo politics and become a journalist. Not only that, but he started up his own newspaper, The Argus, which he called a more serious newspaper than Whit's own City Times. In addition to that, Whit's youngest son, Kirk, was thrown out of military school and ended up in jail. Although Whit was content to let him stay there to teach him a lesson, his daughter, Diana, posted bail while Lisa took Kirk under her wing. Meanwhile, Whit was also exasperated by Diana's exploits especially when she found herself pregnant. Believing the child to be Frank Andropoulos's, a drunk Whit showed up at Memorial, where Diana was rushed to after a bout of preeclampsia, and demanded to know from Frank, why, if he was the father of Diana's baby, he was still cavorting with Maggie Crawford! Things went from bad to worse when Steve (who was in actuality the father) tried to help Diana and he found himself at the receiving end of Whit's tirade. Distraught at her father's anger, Diana ended up losing the baby, for which Steve blamed Whit. Soon after, came trouble in the form of formidable businesswoman Lucinda Walsh. Blaming Whit for the suicide of her former husband, Martin Guest, Lucinda set out to take everything that Whit owned. Having bought enough shares of his company, she was able to oust Whit and seize everything he had.

Then came August 2, 1984. After fighting with Steve again about the loss of Diana's baby, Whit summoned his ex-employee Craig and pressured him to work for Raymond Speer to figure out what his connection to Steve was. However, Craig was trying to put his vendetta with Steve behind him by this point and angrily refused. Later, after Lucinda arrived to gloat over her victory, Whit received a visit from Jay Connors, the son of his housekeeper, Dorothy Connors, and the pair argued over Whit's abusing Dorothy's loyalty by firing her. After that eventful night, Lisa arrived home to find Whit dead-- beaten to death with his own crystal decanter. Though Lucinda was the prime suspect in his murder, the true killer was Dorothy. At the trial came a stunning revelation, Dorothy was Kirk's real mother--the product of an affair between Whit and his long-suffering housekeeper. In exchange for keeping Kirk's parentage a secret, Whit allowed Dorothy to stay in the boy's life as a housekeeper, promising to marry her when the time was right. In a sudden rage, Dorothy killed Whit when he ultimately reneged on his promise.

Even after his death, Whit sought control over his children's lives by withholding their inheritance unless they met certain criteria. Brian would get nothing unless he returned to politics, Diana (who Whit felt had been acting like a tramp) would get nothing unless she married and had a legitimate offspring, and Kirk (who Whit felt was acting like a spoiled playboy) would get nothing unless he led a stable life.