White, Charles McElroy, 1891-1977

Steel company executive.

Charles Michael White was born in Mackinaw City, Michigan to Michael Hazelton White and Lottie Alberta Shrigley White on November 3, 1924. He had four older sisters, Vera, Charlotte, Eugenie, and Ruth. His father was a postmaster and later a railroad mail clerk; Lottie was a housewife and ran a boarding house out of their home. Lottie died when Charles was young, and after her death Charles' oldest sister and husband moved in to help raise him and manage the boarders.

Charles began college at Michigan State College in 1941, though due to World War II he would not finish his bachelor’s degree there until 1947. He began naval training in 1942 and served in the Pacific from 1944-1946, earning five battle stars in three engagements. In college, he majored in history and political science, a combined department at that time. He earned his master’s degree from MSC in 1949 and began his doctoral studies at University of Southern California, where he finished in 1959.

In 1952, White met George Hoffman, who was the Director of Social Science at Portland State Extension Center (later Portland State University). Hoffman hired White, who came to PSU in the fall of 1952 to teach English history, history of Western civilization, and social science, and to serve as a student advisor. Soon after he began at Portland State, he was appointed the Assistant to the Director of Social Science. After the History Department formalized in 1957/58, White was appointed head of the department for one year (circa early 1960s).

From 1971 until 1989, White was the Director of both the PSU Summer School and the International Affairs Education program; this appointment was partially a result of his work on Study Abroad programming in the 1960s. As Director of the Summer School, White brought several innovations to the program: he pursued and encouraged visiting professors to lecture; he expanded the language selection to include up to 24 languages; he introduced flexible scheduling in the form of 1, 2, 4, 8, and 11-week classes, and he introduced the option for students to pay by credit card.

In addition to his role as Director, White also edited the Summer School catalog at PSU and several other colleges, and as a result, the Western Association and the North American Association of Summer Schools have established the Charlie Award for best catalog.

White married Martha Jane Toles in 1947; the couple had two children, Michael and Barbara, and divorced in 1976. White married Dawn Lesley Weissenfluh O’Donnell in 1981. As of 2009, Charles White has six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He continues to teach (mostly adult/senior education), was the lead editor for Portland State: A History in Pictures, and holds tours at Multnomah Falls where he is able to indulge his lifelong love of geography.