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Dedication to YMCA is honored
Center to be renamed today
Journal Photo by David Rolfe
Bill White Jr., 79, is the former CEO of First Federal Savings Bank.
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Published: December 1, 2008
When William G. "Bill" White Jr. used to raise money for the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina, he would call people up and say, "Hey, we're raising money for the Y. I put you down for $500. Is that all right?"
If someone began to sputter in protest, White would pretend to misunderstand the hesitation and ask if they preferred to give $1,000, said White's son, Will White.
White's lifetime commitment to the YMCA will be honored at noon today when the Central Family YMCA on West End Boulevard will be dedicated and renamed the William G. White Jr. Family YMCA.
"I've never done anything to get a reward," White said.
He described the YMCA as a lifelong habit that he acquired as a boy when he attended Camp Hanes, which was then on Spruce Street.
His passion for the YMCA carried him all the way to Ukraine, where in 1992 he worked to establish the first YMCA branch there.
He is a longtime board member and has served the YMCA in a number of volunteer roles.
White, 79, was born and raised in Winston-Salem. He likes to say that the only times he left the city were to serve in the Navy during the Korean War, to get a degree in finance from UNC Chapel Hill, and to get a graduate degree in finance from Indiana University.
His father, W.G. White, owned the grocery store by the same name that operated for many years on Cherry Street and is now known as Ronnie's Country Store.
The YMCA's sports, swimming and camping programs made a huge impression on the young people in the area when he was growing up, White said.
"We didn't have a lot of places to go in the old days," he said.
He was a runner for much of his life, he said, and when he was 70, he used to run from his house in the Pfafftown area to the Central YMCA.
White started his business career at what was then known as First Federal Savings and Loan, and he worked his way up to become the president of the company.
Southern National Bank bought the company, which was then known as First Federal Savings Bank, in 1993.
He found that his business experience was useful in helping the YMCA grow, he said.
Back in the 1970s and '80s, the YMCA struggled to stay afloat. White said that he and other volunteers in the community worked to institute professional business and management practices.
His leadership during that period was crucial to keeping the YMCA on track, said Curt Hazelbaker, the president and CEO of the YMCA.
Hazelbaker said that despite White's leadership skills, he has remained a very humble man who inspires confidence and who makes other people comfortable.
But White is also someone who gets things done once he sets his mind to them, Hazelbaker said.
In 1992, White and other representatives from YMCAs around the world met outside Moscow to discuss starting YMCAs in the former Soviet Union.
White noticed that no one from Ukraine was at the meeting.
"We're going to the Ukraine to start the Y," he announced to those around the table, his son, Will, said.
He knew one person in Ukraine, someone he had met on a train during a trip several years earlier, White said.
He went and visited that man in his village and they decided to open a YMCA there. The program was so successful that there are now more than 20 YMCAs in Ukraine, he said.
Will White, who often worked with his father on YMCA projects, said that his father was a master delegator and a realist, whose shrewd assessments about people and projects enabled him to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks.
"Never set your sights too low," White said.
■ Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com.
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