[Southsider2k12]

A big loss for Michigan City and its kids. He was a great man.

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2010/0...92749210282.txt

White remembered for his work with kids

By Deborah Sederberg
Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 4:13 AM CDT
MICHIGAN CITY — The people of Michigan City will remember John White as an advocate for children and teens.

White, 84, died Friday, May 14, at his home.

Retired in 1993 from the Michigan City Area Schools, White had served as assistant principal at both Rogers and Elston high schools and as dean of students at the high schools as well.

Early in his local career, he also taught science at (then) Krueger Junior High School.

A graduate of Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio, White earned a master of science degree from Miami University of Oxford, Ohio. He became a teacher when it was especially difficult for blacks to get a college education.

“He was wonderful influence on young people,” Mayor Chuck Oberlie said.

The mayor remembered a time when he and White were working on a project for the Urban Enterprise Association. The UEA was running a summer youth program which was hiring teens to clean up their neighborhoods.

“John and I went up and down streets and alleys, filming them, before and after the clean-up because he wanted the kids to see what they had accomplished,” Oberlie said.

White taught science and coached at the college level, at Alcorn University in Mississippi and at Wilberforce, before he ever became a high school teacher. Before Michigan City, he taught and coached in Paducah, Kentucky, where he was born Jan. 23, 1926, and in St. Louis.

White and his wife, Mary, who was a counselor with the Michigan City Area Schools, came to Michigan City in 1970.

“John was always spending his own time and his own money in trying to get kids into colleges,” said Allan Whitlow, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Michigan City and former assistant superintendent of schools for MCAS.

Albertine Allen, executive director of the Minority Health Coalition of La Porte County, had similar observations.

“John always wanted something better for kids,” said Allen, whose late husband, Larry Allen Sr., was a student at Wilberforce when White was teaching there.

According to his resume, on file with The News-Dispatch, White was 5 feet, 5 1/2-inches tall.

Noting that he wasn’t a tall man, Allen whose own nickname is “Tiny,” said, nonetheless, “John White was a powerful man” when working for children.

At Bethel AME Church, where Allen also belongs, White was always willing to help, no matter the project. “Whenever someone would ask him for something for the church, he never said no,” Allen recalled.

White had been honored as a Sagamore of the Wabash and as Michigan City’s Humanitarian of the Year. Twice he received the J.C. Penney Rule award.

Active with American Legion Post 37, White was a vigorous supporter of the Legion’s patriotism and oratory programs for young people.

He also served on many governmental and community boards and commissions.

Speaking at White’s induction into the MCAS Wall of Fame, his former student and now a teacher at Elston Middle School, Kathy Walker got a laugh when she confessed that she occasionally avoided him in the halls because she didn’t have time to listen to “one of his stories.” Nonetheless, she said, “His words stayed with me.”

His words likely stayed with many former students.

“John White was an advocate for kids,” Allan Whitlow said.

[Tom Burns]

A big loss for Michigan City and its kids. He was a great man.

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2010/0...92749210282.txt

A real community loss, noted by many at yesterday's Rotary meeting. I recall serving on the King Center Board with him for many years.

[Southsider2k12]

I was student at Elston from 1988 to 1992. White always sticks with me as a man who was always positive, personable, and available. Everyone knew who he was, and he always had time to help.