front&center Jim White

91-year-old continues to contribute to community

By Elizabeth Sharp

LITTLE ROCK — Ask 91-year-old Jim White of Fairfield Bay what he does for a living, and he'll reach into his pocket and hand over a crisp white business card that has imprinted, "James E. White, Long-Range Planner."

His involvement stems from one passion: a desire to revitalize and help grow the community that he's grown to love so much since moving there in 1987.

"I thank the good Lord every morning for keeping me here another day and ask, 'What am I going to do next?'" White said.

White was born in Aurora, a small town in southwest Missouri. When he was 4 years old, his father, Ben White, a telegrapher, moved to Nebraska to work for a year. During that time, White, his mother and his brothers lived with his father's parents, who made a living building barns. After his father's return from Nebraska, White and his family spent the next several years moving along Missouri-North Arkansas Railroad for his father's job. They lived in Donovan, Harrison, Heber Springs, Searcy and Shirley before finally settling in Cotton Plant.

In 1934, White graduated from high school and became an assistant manager of the Kroger store in Cotton Plant for two years. The superintendent of Cotton Plant School District asked White why he wasn't attending college, and when White cited a lack of finances, the superintendent suggested that he work a job at school to pay for his education.

After that conversation, White enrolled at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. He took a job in theschool's dining hall, punctuating his work schedule - 4:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. - with classes and earning 15 cents an hour.

Although he was the first person in his family to attend college, he said his mother, Florence May Hendrix White, was the person who encouraged him to pursue higher education.

"My mother was the greatest influence on me," White said. "She always taught me from the beginning, 'Jimmy, you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it.'

"She was the one that always fixed me something special when I came in with all A's on my report card," he added, laughing.

While in school, White discovered that he was fascinated with chemistry and mathematics, which he said was probably a natural extension of his admiration of the train engineers he saw so often on the railroad platforms as a child. He'd always dreamed of becoming a train engineer, but when it came time to make a decision, White said he decided to just become a plain-old engineer instead.

In 1938, White transferred to the University of Arkansas Fayetteville, where he pursued a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering. For the next four years, he worked so much that he never saw a single football game. But in 1940, his hard work finally paid off: The chemical engineering department chose White for a cooperative scholarship with Standard Oil Company of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, La., designating him as the first University of Arkansas student to receive the honor. He worked in Baton Rouge for a year before graduating in 1941 and marrying his high school sweetheart, Helen, shortly thereafter.

Over the next several years, White worked for oil companies in Baton Rouge and New York City. In 1966, he moved to London and took a job at Esso Europe Inc. designing factories that produced lube oil, wax and grease all over Europe.

"It was an interesting challenge because I was with 10 to 12 different nationalities," he said. "That widened my appreciation of the world outside the United States."

During his time overseas, Helen White took up brassrubbing. On the weekends, the couple traveled to cathedrals all over the country for her to pursue her hobby. While White waited for his wife to finish her work, he spent hours examining the beautiful, ornate woodwork of each building, which prompted him to begin taking lessons with a woodworker.

In 1977, the Whites moved back to the United States, where they settled in New Jersey to be closer to their two daughters. During that time, they frequently visited one of White's brothers, who was living in Fairfield Bay. Eventually, both of their daughters moved away from New Jersey, and although they still had good friends at their church, the Whites decided to relocate to Fairfield Bay in 1987.

"The people we knew at the church were going to the grave, going into nursing homes or moving closer to their kids," White said. "None of those were options for us."

White said it was more than being close to his brother that prompted the move to Fairfield Bay.

"Everything was happening," he said. "There were hot-air balloons and races on the lake. There was a lot going on, and we began to get involved."

White's resume of activities in Fairfield Bay over the past 21 years is a long one: session member at his church, Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian; member of the Fairfield Bay Men's Chorus, AARP and the Audubon Club; and founding member of Wood Carvers Unlimited, the group that helped carve the three signature totem poles in the town.

Despite his increasing age and his wife's death in 2005, White continues to stay busy today. In 1990, Fairfield Communities Inc., the entity under which all Fairfield Bay property was filed, went into bankruptcy, and all assets and responsibilities were transferred to the Community Club. The population and revenue of the town has decreased since then, andWhite has spent hours making phone calls, doing research, assembling information and presenting his findings to people all over Fairfield Bay to try to get on the right track again.

"A lot of the dreamers and pushers are dead or moved away," White said. "The people that have moved in here have come to go fishing and golfing and watch television."

But since the formation of a new Community Club board in 2006 and an increasing interest from people within Fairfield Bay, White said he's hopeful about the town's future.

"Things are looking up a little," he said.

In the past few years, White has been involved in trying to build a new conference center in the area, and he's pushed for a 6-foot-by-6-foot map of Fairfield Bay to be built at the town's entrance to help visitors navigate through it with ease. Two of the totem poles that he helped build need to be cleaned and repainted, and he still does other wood carvings in the basement of his home.

"I'm still having a good time," he said. "I didn't realize that being 91 could be so much fun."matter of fact Age: 91 Hometown: Cotton Plant My family is: Daughters Anita Wellings of White Plains, N.Y., and Virginia Lane of Bakersfield, Ca.;

grandchildren Christine Miller of Brandon, Fla.;

Jeffery Quinn of Valley Cottage, N.Y.; Heather Olson of Palo Alto, Ca.; Carrie Lane of Fullerton, Ca.; and Tawny Nuetzel of Chicago; and great-grandchildren Rianna Quinn and Megan Olson.

Favorite food: Any seafood Favorite movie: Gone With the Wind Favorite Teacher: Dr. Harrison Hale, head of the chemistry department at University of Arkansas at Fayetteville If I could meet anyone in history, it would be: Jesus Christ I can't live without: The support of my family When I was growing up I wanted to be: A railroad engine engineer, but I became a chemical engineer instead.

Favorite Quote: "It's not how old you are, but how you are old that counts" The world would be a better place if: The world's population could speak the same language.

Most people don't know: That I am 91 years old and enjoying life to the fullest.

Someday I will: Leave a wonderful family, of whom I'm so proud, that remembers me as one who always did the best he could do.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 142, 143 on 03/01/2009