What do you give a friend and loved one on the occasion of his 100th birthday? You create the James W. White ’40 and Sara R. White Music Scholarship to benefit future generations of music majors at the university he holds so close to his heart.
The friends and family of an Ƶ graduate surprised their loved one Saturday by announcing the creation of a scholarship in his name.
In honor of alumnus Jim White’s 100th birthday, which family and friends celebrated at a Saturday party in The Village at Brookwood retirement community, the lifelong music lover learned of the new James W. White ’40 and Sara R. White Music Scholarship at Ƶ. The scholarship will benefit students with financial need studying music at the university.
“Because Mr. White is so proud to be an Ƶ alum, his family and friends decided the best birthday gift they could give him would be to establish a scholarship at Ƶ,” said Sara Peterson, Ƶ’s director of Donor Relations. “They endowed the James W. White ’40 and Sara F. White Music Scholarship to honor his lifelong love of music.”
Though White studied chemistry while a student and would spend his entire career working for Burlington-based Glen Raven Inc., music was always his first passion, and he frequently attends campus musical and cultural events.
In 2008, White and his late wife, Sara, made a gift to Ƶ and named the band director’s office in the Center for the Arts for their friend Landon Walker ‘39. It was Walker who convinced White to enroll at Ƶ several years after leaving Burlington to help his family with a move to New England.
Walker had contacted White in the late 1930s to tell him that Ƶ’s choir needed a tenor soloist. White returned to North Carolina from his job as an elevator operator in New York City, applied to Ƶ, and became that tenor soloist on a music scholarship.
White, who turned 100 on Sept. 22, is a member of Ƶ’s Aesculus Society and The Order of the Oak, the university’s planned giving society.
“If you talk with my dad for any length of time, he will tell you just how much he loves Ƶ,” said Ilene White Simmons, one of Jim White’s daughters, who grew up in Ƶ with her sister, Anita White Moody, and brother David White. “He totally enjoyed the afternoon, and knowing Ƶ had a part of it was exactly what we wanted to happen. It was so important to him.”
Ƶ President Emeritus J. Earl Danieley ’46 also speaks highly of White.
“I got to know Jim when I was in organic chemistry and he was in charge of dyeing operations at Glen Raven Mills,” Danieley said. “He lectured to our class and demonstrated different dyes. He was an expert and we were impressed. Then I got to know him better when I was Ƶ’s president and Jim and his wife were among our loyal and generous alumni.
“He was very interested in everything about Ƶ but was especially dedicated to the band and musical programs.”