James Garber White Jr.

Jim was born in New Orleans, LA on September 5, 1940 and grew up in the west Texas oil town of Midland. The only child of Jim and Mae White, he lived an idyllic childhood in Midland.

In 1953 the family moved to Albuquerque, NM where Jim’s father opened his own law practice. Jim spent two years at Kemper Military School in Booneville, MO but returned to Albuquerque to graduate from Highland High School after a serious knee injury on the football field at Kemper.

Jim’s passion was flying, and he obtained his pilot’s license at the age of 17. While attending the University of New Mexico, he worked for Trans World Airlines on the ground as a “gas jockey”. He moved to California with TWA in 1960 and continued his studies at the College of San Mateo.

In 1963 Jim met Susan Hines, also with TWA, and they married the following year. He started working for AAA and subsequently for Shell Oil Company, which required a move to the southern California town of Costa Mesa.

While working full time, Jim completed his requirements for a B.A. in Economics from Cal State Long Beach. He was honored by Shell three years in a row with membership in the Society of the Golden West as a top producer in their retail and real estate departments. Jim’s dream was to work in Shell’s aviation department, for which he qualified by obtaining his multi-engine and commercial pilot’s licenses, to find that the department had been eliminated.

In 1976, Jim left Shell as an employee and became an independent businessman operating three gas stations in Signal Hill, in south-central Los Angeles and in Compton. After eight years, he joined two partners to start Mesa Development, a successful construction company that built apartments and condominiums in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Monterey, CA.

Always the entrepreneur, Jim and various partners tried selling California wines to the British, mail order pantyhose to flight attendants (Flight Line Hosiery), pizza to southern Californians (Panjos and Lamppost) and drug test kits to prisons and police departments (Bio-Test) . Jim never really retired, but continued to look for new business opportunities. His word was his bond and he was one of the most honest businessmen around. For the past 20 years, Jim had returned to his Texas roots in the oil industry, by negotiating royalty leases with the belief- – “A deal is only good if it is good for both sides.”

Jim was a member of the Francis Drake Masonic Lodge in South San Francisco for 47 years and he became a Shriner in 1998.

One of the most memorable events of Jim’s life was as a passenger on a Concorde flight from London to New York in 1978, when he was invited to sit in the cockpit for part of the flight.

Jim was also thrilled to be invited on a Tiger Cruise from Hawaii to San Diego on the aircraft carrier “Kitty Hawk” in 1995.

Jim became a founding member of the American Air Museum in Duxford, England and was present when it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.

As one who swore he would never take a cruise, Jim became a cruise and travel enthusiast during the last ten years of his life and travelled to Central and South America, Alaska, the Caribbean, Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa. Jim loved to travel by car, plane or ship and enjoyed people everywhere. Life was definitely the journey and not necessarily the destination.

Jim has come to the end of his journey and leaves behind his wife Susan, son James III (Jim), daughter Linda and husband Kevin Sorrell, and a granddaughter Kiersten Sorrell.

He will be greatly missed.

Service Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 2pm in the Pacific View Chapel.

The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Honor Flight Network: providing transportation to America’s veterans to Washington D.C. to visit those memorials dedicated to their service and sacrifices.

http://www.honorflight.org/donate/