My 10 cents worth about Dave White

By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)

When Dave White was the big honcho in BJ Composing and an editor would complain, Dave’s response was, “Here’s a dime, call somebody who cares.”

When I began vacationing on Siesta Key 1 ½ decades ago and Dave would visit us, I would hand him a dime, saying, “Call somebody who cares.” I did this every year. Dave had at least 8 dimes from me, which he stacked up neatly in a container on a shelf in their home, before illness ended our greeting routine.

Dave and wife Gina, also a BJ Composing retiree, moved to Venice in 2004 after 17 years in their Sarasota home. Their Venice backyard faced a golf course on a lake and, sometimes, alligators in the lake.

Dave is not the only BJ folks I visited in Florida who are no longer among us. So is former printer Terry Dray, of Avon Park, Florida, and newsroom rewrite guru Don Bandy, of Bradenton, Florida. I don’t know what happened to Don Pack, another Composing retiree, who was the pool guy when we stayed at Sea Castle, which also is gone, razed to make way for another high-rise on Crescent Beach on Siesta Key. Hugh Downing, who also crossed my path on Siesta Key, now lives in The Villages, Florida. 

Ironically, Dave – who with Gina filed the successful healthcare lawsuit against the BJ – won’t be alive to benefit from the Jan. 1, 2013 return to retirement-day coverage levels.

But the other 48 of us benefitting from the healthcare settlement will owe Dave a debt of gratitude for the rest of our lives.

Thanks, Dave. RIP.