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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | George W. White |
| Address |
Cleveland, Ohio , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
00, 1931 |
| Died |
November 12, 2011
(80 years) |
| Contributor | RBH |
| Last Modifed | 00
Nov 16, 2011 07:06am |
| Tags |
|
| Info | George W. White, retired chief judge of the United States District Court in Cleveland, died Saturday at age 80.
White spoke softly but relished challenges. He set racial firsts as a district judge and chief. He took on a bigoted professor in class and won some political battles against Mayor Carl Stokes. He bought a sputtering Checker Cab for $50 in Colorado and drove it home to Cleveland.
White ended the Cleveland schools' 25-year desegregation case. He also heard the trials of Teamsters leader Jackie Presser, porn king Reuben Sturman and other headlined defendants.
He helped to create the United Black Fund of Cleveland, First Club of Cleveland, the Cleveland Browns Foundation and the federal courthouse, which opened three years after his 1999 retirement.
Solomon Oliver, who holds White's old job as chief judge of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, said, "He had a great sense of humor and did not take himself too seriously. He treated everyone with dignity and respect."
Steven Dettelbach, U.S. attorney for northern Ohio, said, "As powerful as he was, George White was unfailingly gentle."
White was born in Duquesne, Pa., to a Baptist minister father. He enrolled in Baldwin-Wallace College in 1948. He deliberately took a class from a reportedly bigoted professor. When the reports proved true, White told him off in class.
On the final exam, the student left every question blank but, "What did you learn in this course?"
"Absolutely nothing," he wrote. The professor gave him a C.
White supported himself as a coin handler and teller at the Federal Reserve Bank. He graduated Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1955. He practiced with Charles Fleming, later presiding judge of Cleveland Municipal Court. Then he investigated and refereed in the Domestic Relations Division of Common Pleas.
In 1961, he upset the incumbent city councilman for Lee-Seville's Ward 30 in the primary but lost the general election. He moved to Lee-Harvard's Ward 13 and won the next time around.
During five years on council, White won bans on overnight street parking in the ward, thwarted a few bids for liquor licenses and stopped Carl Stokes from building a big housing project nearby. He also helped James Stanton become council president.
"He's tough as nails," Stanton told The Plain Dealer in 1995.
In 1968, White lost a congressional primary to Carl Stokes' brother, Louis, then won a seat on Common Pleas. White lost a primary for the Ohio Supreme Court in 1972. In 1977, U.S. Senator John Glenn proposed him for U.S. district attorney, but Senator Howard Metzenbaum denied him. Then the senators agreed on a 1980 federal district court slate including White, the district's first black judge.
'White's sentences varied. He gave no prison time to Teamster leaders Anthony Hughes and Harold Friedman for racketeering. On Common Pleas, he sometimes gave young offenders long prison terms, then called them back a few minutes later and gave them another chance at freedom.
In 1995, ascending by seniority among judges under age 65, White became the district's first black chief and joined the Sixth Circuit District Council. By then, he'd already helped to bring early computer technology to the court.
He left the bench in 1999 and became the first head of the Cleveland Browns Foundation. He lived in Orange and wintered in Naples, Fla. His wife, the former Lillian Louise Male, taught English in Cleveland and Shaker Heights, then became a real estate broker. He outlived her and one of their three children.
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