MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Prominent WVU alumni, athlete, and businessman Pete White has died at the age of 89. White passed away Thursday in Sarasota, Florida with family.
“We are incredibly grateful for the outstanding service, expertise, and enthusiasm of Pete White,” WVU Foundation President and CEO Cindi Roth said. “Every time we were together, Pete offered encouraging advice and regularly shared his life and business wisdom with me, for which I am most appreciative. His leadership from the 1960s to the present helped us grow into a fundraising powerhouse prepared to meet the needs of West Virginia’s flagship land-grant institution. We couldn’t have achieved the record numbers we have in recent years without the groundwork he laid during his decades of service. “He is a true mountaineer who will be deeply missed.”
White is from Clendenin, a small town about 25 miles northeast of Charleston. At WVU, he lettered for four years in both track and basketball. He played with Mountaineer legend “Hot Rod” Hundley and was drafted by the NBA’s St. Louis Hawks, but he declined the invitation to fulfill his ROTC commitment to the United States Air Force.
His experience in business, estate, and charitable planning became a very important asset during his service on the WVU Foundation Board from 1967 to 2009.
White was elected to the Order of Vandalia, the highest alumni honor at WVU, in 2001, and he received the Foundation’s Outstanding Volunteer Philanthropist Award in 2016. In recognition of his basketball career, he was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.