His education began in the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania, in small towns like Shepton and Port Carbon.

 

He had come to the smoky mining areas of the state as a young lad from Front Royal, Va., his birthplace, a small resort community nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains. His father was a successful auto mechanic after long military service in the army.

 

An estimated 200 people stood squinting in the brilliant, hot sun Sunday afternoon, and watched Gordon Kelvin White and Robert Eldridge White Jr. raise the United States flag slowly to the top of a tall aluminum flagpole set in front of the new Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. Before that Rev. Thomas H. Lehman had offered a short prayer; and after that, Mrs. Wilfrid O. White merely spoke the words that were inscribed in the base of the flagpole she had given the school, and on which her grandsons had run up the flag.

 

With the approval and cooperation of the superintendent of schools, the principals and faculty, the Dukes County Savings Bank has instituted a school savings plan design to encourage thrift by regular savings. The teachers are provided with signature cards, the first step toward opening an account, and a deposit envelope for the first deposit. At least five cents is required. The bank will issue pass books in the name of all students.