Mr. WIlliam Byrd "Bill" White

William Byrd "Bill" White passed into eternal rest on Sunday, the 20th of November 2011. White was born in a farm house near McCrory, Arkansas, on the 10th of April 1924, where the White family farmed since the 1850s. White’s father died during the Depression, and he handled his share of farm chores while he attended a small school and developed a lifelong habit of reading, beginning with the Bible.

White served in the U.S. Third Army during World War II. After landing at Omaha Beach several days after the initial assault in 1944, he fought until wounded by German artillery and began recuperation in Birmingham, England. He was redeployed during the Battle of the Bulge. After being furloughed at Fort Sam Houston, White was the first in his family to graduate from college, Trinity University in San Antonio. Later he received a master's degree in history from Southwest Texas State University.

At Trinity University he met Gloria Howard, his wife for 63 years.

An exceptional athlete and coach, White coached a team from the Southside of San Antonio to the championship of the Pony League World Series in 1952. He also coached winning Peewee, Colt and American Legion baseball teams.

Bill White worked as a teacher, coach and administrator in various public schools in San Antonio, Texas, for forty years. They included schools in the Harlandale, San Antonio, Ft. Sam Houston and Alamo Heights school districts. He received numerous teaching and coaching awards. Students remember his insistence on high standards and his engaging and irreverent wit.

He also taught during the summers at San Antonio College, Texas Military Institute and at a veterans program. As a principal he had a reputation for fairness and high performance, and was selected “Boss of the Year” in 1981 by the Business Woman’s Association of San Antonio.

For almost two decades he served as general manager of Fiesta Noche del Rio, an annual summer musical review that raised millions of dollars for children’s charities of the Alamo Kiwanis Club. The show was performed on the riverwalk next to San Antonio's historic La Villita. For 23 years, while teaching, he also worked at nights at the downtown Joske’s Department Store.

He and his wife were early members of San Antonio’s St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church, where they taught Sunday school. They later became members of San Antonio’s University United Methodist Church and Houston’s First United Methodist Church. Throughout his life, White lived his faith and abhorred stereotypes and injustice.

In his retirement, Bill White enjoyed reading, family activities, and participation in running, swimming, biking and skiing. White swam a mile a day most days of the week until beginning cancer treatment earlier this year, after turning 87.

Bill White was preceded in death by his parents, William Bradford White and Lilly Byrd White; his sisters, Phoebe Ann Johnson and Mary Taylor; and his son, the late Robert Avalon White. His survivors include his wife Gloria White; his sister, Helen Shinn; his son and daughter-in-law, Bill and Andrea White; and grandchildren, Will, Elena and Stephen White. Friends Wayne Dockery, Edward Ruckstuhl, and Scott Bage also survive him. All reside in Houston, except for Mrs. Shinn, who lives in Boerne, and Mr. Bage, of San Antonio. The family also desires to express their thanks to Amelia and Andrew Cruz for their care.

Friends are cordially invited to gather with the family and share remembrances of Bill’s life from half-past four o’clock in the afternoon until half-past seven o’clock in the evening on Monday, the 28th of November, in the Grand Foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

In lieu of customary remembrances, contributions in memory of Bill White may be directed to First United Methodist Church of Houston, 1320 Main St., Houston, TX, 77002.