John J. White (92) died Saturday at his home in Glenview, Illinois after a lengthy illness. He was born on the 4th of July, 1919 in New Haven, Conn. to James and Mary King White, immigrants from County Kerry, Ireland, and he resided in the Hill section of New Haven and attended Sacred Heart and Hillhouse High School where he played on the varsity baseball and football teams and was an All State Football team selectee in 1936. He attended Cheshire Academy before entering Yale University in 1938 and played football and baseball at both institutions.
A Naval ROTC cadet, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy upon his graduation from Yale and served 4 years in the Navy in WW11. He was Chief Engineering Officer on destroyers in the North Atlantic and Pacific theaters as well as Executive Officer of the USS JARVIS before retiring with the rank of LT. Commander. White began his industrial career as a trainee with the American Brake Shoe Company and worked in production and sales. He and two longtime partners started the fledgling Midland Manufacturing Corporation in 1951. With White as its president, Midland grew from a small machine shop to a worldwide supplier of railway equipment, and mobile homes and recreation equipment before its acquisition by Dover Corporation in 2004.
White also became a member of the Illinois Bar after completing night law school at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago in 1955. He was honored by his selection as its Alumnus of the Year in 1964. He was a long time Director of the Better Government Association of Chicago serving from 1962 until his death. He also served a term as its president. Maintaining his interest in the Law and Naval affairs, he was a life member of the Chicago Bar Association Foundation and the Navy League of the United States.
Throughout his adulthood, White’s avocations were education and politics. He served 7 years as a Trustee of the Glenbrook High School District 225 in Illinois, including one term as president. He served as a Trustee and Overseer of Cheshire Academy where the Science and technology Center was named in his honor. He was counselor to the Paul Simon Institute at Southern Illinois University. White established the White Brothers Scholarship in 1985 to assist needy students matriculating at Yale from the Greater New Haven Area. He was a major donor for the reconstruction of Yale Baseball Field. In recognition of his service to his Alma Mater, he was selected as a Sterling Fellow of Yale University.
A life-time Democrat, White devoted his political energies and money in Illinois to the candidacies of “independents’ or “reformers” such as Senators Paul Simon and Adlai Stevenson, Anthony Scariano and Leland Rayson. He took special pride in “having a role” in the beginning of Rahm Emanuel’s political career. Not always with “winners”, he was the campaign chairman of Stephan A. Mitchell’s unsuccessful bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1960. However, that same year he was Vice- Chairman of the Business and Professionals for Kennedy, organizing local committees and fund raising for JFK throughout Illinois.
He was a member of the Union League Club of Chicago, Yale Clubs of Chicago and New York City, Sunset Ridge Country Club of Northfield, ILL., the Moorings Club of Vero Beach, FL, and the Yale Golf Club in Connecticut.
White was predeceased by his first wife, Jane, his brother James, and his sister, Mary Ellen. He is survived by his wife Virginia of Glenview, daughter Mary Carolyn of South Riding Virginia, step-sons Bradley Swick and James Burnham; nephews Jeff, Douglas, and Michael, nieces Kathleen and Madeleine, and thirteen grand-nieces and grand-nephews.
A celebration of his life will be held this Friday, July 29th at 4pm at the N. H. Scott & Hanekamp Funeral Home in Glenview, Illinois. There will also be a subsequent memorial service this summer in Connecticut at Cheshire Academy that will be announced. Memorial considerations may be made to the Better Government Association of Chicago 11 E. Adams St. Suite 608, Chicago, ILL. 60606.
