Don White
Lois and Don, 2009
I’ve really enjoyed reading the bios on this web-site. So many of you have accomplished so much and have lives of such meaning, it’s all really quite remarkable. And not an axe-murderer in the bunch! [Give ‘em time!! - ed.]
Though I’ve lived in Ontario for most of my post-MRHS life, I still consider myself a transplanted Westerner (my grandfather moved to Kaslo in the west Kootenays in the 1890’s) or, more accurately, a Northerner who has just gone “outside” for a while.
My wife, Lois Richardson, and I live in Port Hope, a picturesque town of 15,000 on Lake Ontario about an hour east of Toronto, best known for two things; its vibrant arts community—live theatre, artists, writers and antique stores—and the Cameco uranium refinery built on the lakefront. I’m sure it was A Really Good Idea in 1933, but what were they thinking??!!
Lois is an incredibly talented artist and is the set designer and props mistress (I love saying that 'cause it sounds kinda kinky) at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope. There aren't many professional theatre companies in Canada and Lois has had the good fortune to work with actors from one end of the country, to the other. There are so many young, gifted performers in Canada with great talent, who spend much of the year waiting tables at your local Beer Bistro. Ya gotta support live theatre, people.
It’s important and if we don't, who will?
Lois and I live in one of the oldest houses in Port Hope with our Golden Lab—Shadow, The Wonder Pup—and 3 cats. It's a neat, old Post and Beam house built in 1843 over-looking the Ganaraska River and was originally an inn on the coach line between Kingston and Toronto. There isn't a level surface in the place and one of the floor joists under the living room is supported by the stump of a petrified tree. It's more than just a bit of a project, but it's quaint as hell and it sure ain't suburbia.
Lois is a Gardener of the First Magnitude; when we bought the house 8 years ago, there was no garden or lawn, just weeds, a dozen 5-foot cedars, a blue spruce and an ugly shrub in the back yard. Six years later, the ugly shrub was gone and Lois' garden was on the local Garden Tour which, if you've ever lived in a small town, you know is "One of Those Things That Really, Really Matters." That it meant so much more to others than to us was part of the (guilty) pleasure.
Lois and I have 6 children between us. I have three children - Joanna (32), Jay (31) and Adam (27). They are all members of different Southwestern Ontario First Nations. Joanna and Jay are both Ojibway; Jo from the Chippewas of Sarnia and Jay from the Chippewas of Kettle/Stony Point. Adam is a member of the Delaware of the Thames. They lead very different lives and I enjoy their successes—not quite “basking in the reflected glory”, but you get my point.
Don and daughter, Joanna, in 1978
I graduated from Carleton in 1970 and have worked in the commercial Property & Casualty insurance industry for the past 40 years. Considering it all started on June 23, 1966 with a serious underground fire in a small mine called “No Cash” in the Yukon (it was always more than a nickname), it could have been worse. “But”, as Percy Zelnick said, in the best bio on this site, “that is another story.”
Don at the No Cash Mine in 1998
Personally, I'm a rabid small-l liberal (honoured to be one of Rush Limbaugh's "those people")—no surprise for those who knew me back when. I still downhill ski a few times a year (Central Ontario isn't the Laurentians) but, by the time I got really good at parallel skiing, it was no longer fashionable. I played competitive sports until I was in my 50’s, including the International (Hockey) Cup, just outside Paris in 1986. In addition to painting sets for Lois at the Capitol, I volunteer as Stage Manager for the Northumberland Orchestra & Choir. I really enjoy it; it brings out the inner Gordie Drysdale in me, and the musicians are very appreciative.
On Christmas Eve, 2009, I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (who says oncologists don’t have a sense of timing?) Since then I’ve had 4 courses of chemotherapy (baldness is vastly over-rated) and just finished 20 radiation treatments. My hair is slowly growing back, but I look like Bronko Wiszniewski, offensive line coach for the Raging Marmots of Southwest New Mexico State Junior College [0-12 last season.] I’m feeling fine now and looking forward to getting back on the golf course this summer.
While most of the bios here have been more succinct than mine (clearly you had better editors), you have been, with rare exception, more than candid about how your lives have unfolded, Maybe that's the benefit of being over 60 - it may have been more “non-linear” than we expected, but we're still here.
As far as the future is concerned, I was 14 years old, in Grade 8 (in Mrs. Hoyos’ home-room—wasn’t she an “interesting” lady) when the Chicago Black Hawks last won the Stanley Cup in 1961 and I'm not going anywhere until they win it again. Good thing I don’t root for the Cubs.
Finally, about that picture that I’ve asked John to dump; Russ Waterman said, ".... he's (still) able to keep his balance and he looks fine." Which was the kindest thing said by anyone who saw that picture. And it was nice that Russ didn't point out the wine glass was empty.