Kenneth William White

As per Kenneth's wishes there will be no services.

In Nyack, New York, a boy was born on August 25, 1935 to Alton C. and Reba J. White. They named him Kenneth William. He was later joined by two sisters, Constance and Valerie.

His childhood was marked by a history of illnesses that distressed the family, but his emerging creative talent was a bright spot. In high school, Kenn was scouted as a possible pitcher for a minor league baseball team. His parents, who both left high school before graduation to enter the workforce, insisted that their children follow a different path and saw him off to SUNY New Paltz to pursue a teaching degree. He met his first wife, Kathleen, there and later secured both a Baccalaureate degree and then a Masters degree in education. Kenn was an itinerant art teacher for a time, and opened a summer camp for children, before securing a permanent position with the Onteora CSD where he taught art and photography until his retirement in 1990. He and Kathleen had two sons, Lucas and Kenneth.

He served in the Army as a reservist and received an honorable discharge. In the early 1970s, with his second wife, Mary, he toured Europe one summer in a VW camper van that they picked up at the factory in Westfalia prior to its shipment to them once back in the US. He later participated in a teacher exchange program with Germany. Kenn bought a custom built 1929 Chevrolet popcorn truck from a retiring couple in Elmira, NY and brought it to the Woodstock Library Fair and local horse shows for a few years. He eventually donated the truck to the city of Elmira where it was completely restored and finally housed in its own building for public enjoyment. Also in the 1970s, Kenn bought Lith-Art Press, a small commercial print shop, together with his father, as a silent partner, and ran that business until he sold it to his two sons in 1981.

He met his third wife, Elaine, during that time, but they didn't marry until 1986 and remained so for over 30 years. Retirement brought on a flurry of entrepreneurial ventures for him. Kenn styled himself as a "landscape yardist," started a video company called In-Video, and purchased a bread delivery truck that he converted into a mobile gallery named Art-Van-Go. For a time, he worked at a local camera store before opening a gallery/darkroom in Saugerties with a partner, Jim, that they called FotoQuest, and displayed work from local artists along with vintage cameras for sale or trade.

Over the years, he could be seen in any one of the number of interesting cars he owned, boating on the Hudson River, or creating caricatures at various events. Kenn was a member of the Woodstock Artists Association and the American Society of Marine Artists. Kenneth William White died peacefully, after a brief illness, in the Golden Hill Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on November 14, 2025 with his son Kenneth, his partner Marilyn, and friends Tom and Monique by his side.