Donald O. White

1932 - 2022

Donald O. White

Barre, VT - Donald Owen White, 90, formerly a longtime resident of Amherst, MA passed away on December 21, 2022 at Barre Gardens nursing home.

Born in Lewiston, Maine on March 2, 1932, to Owen Joseph White and Sara Tackaberry White, Don attended St. Patrick's Parochial School near his family's home in Norwich, Connecticut and graduated from Norwich Free Academy in 1949. He attended Yale University and graduated in 1953 with a bachelor's degree majoring in German. He received a Fulbright scholarship to study at Heidelberg University in Germany. There he met Adelheid Hofmann whom he married in 1954. They came to Yale where Don began a graduate program in German.

Upon receiving his Master's degree, Don was invited to teach at Amherst College, where he remained a professor in the German Department for 42 years. While teaching he completed his Ph.D in German from Yale and was awarded tenure at Amherst College in 1970.

He had a distinguished teaching career at Amherst. Upon his retirement, the Board of Trustees wrote a testimonial letter which reads in part, "In the classroom you are equally at home teaching a poem by Holderlin or Rilke, relating the impact of Luther's Reformation, discussing Weimar modernism and the Bauhaus, and analyzing Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone music as it influenced the narrative art of your beloved Thomas Mann. For, whenever possible, as a teacher and scholar, you have explored the interrelationship of the arts - and most especially the kinship between your two great loves, poetry and music."

Throughout his academic career, Don, a self-taught violist, played professionally throughout Massachusetts. He was principal violist with the Pioneer Valley Symphony and played in chamber groups for many colleges and universities in the area. He was a highly sought-after chamber musician.

In 2002 Don met Drusilla Macy at a string quartet workshop in Connecticut. They married in 2004 and enjoyed 18 years of marriage. They took many trips and played together in the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra and the Vermont Philharmonic where he was principal violist, then after a shoulder injury, principle second violin, and finally a cellist. In addition, Don and his wife enjoyed reading chamber music together with many friends.

For many years Don worked on a translation of The Island of Second Sight, a German novel by Albert Vigoleis Thelen. His translation was first published by Galileo Press of Cambridge, England in 2010. In 2013 it was published in the U.S. by The Overlook Press of New York City for which Don was awarded the PEN Translation prize for 2013 and a Helen and Kurt Wolfe award from the Goethe Institute. In all, there have been five editions of his award-winning translation.

Survivors include his devoted wife, Drusilla Macy of Barre; his first wife, Heidi White of Lexington, MA; a son, Thomas White, wife Janja, and granddaughters Alicia and Shannan of Neu-Anspach, Germany; a daughter, Ellen Kalt, husband Tom, and grandson Matthew of Shutesbury, MA and grandson Steven and fiancée, Emma Vaimberg of Baltimore, MD; a son, Martin White, wife Christine Michael of Salem, NY and grandsons Aditep and Jonathan, as well as great-grandchildren Natasha, Catalina, Storm and Carter; and a daughter, Anita Conte, husband, Joseph, and granddaughters Mia and Gabriella of Worcester, MA. Don is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews, as well as great-nieces and great-nephews.

Donald was predeceased by his parents, his sister, Barbara, and a granddaughter, Isabel.

A memorial celebration of life will be held at the Canadian Club May 6, 2023 at 11:30 A.M. in Barre, VT.

Contributions may be made to The Vermont Philharmonic, P.O. Box 425, Montpelier, VT 05601 or to the Aldrich Public Library, 6 Washington St., Barre, VT 05641