Mack Willis White Jr.

1928 - 2025

Mack Willis White, Jr.

May 27, 1928 - November 18, 2025

Davidson, North Carolina - Mack W. White Jr., age 97 died November 18, 2025 at The Pines in Davidson. A Charlotte native, Mack was the son of the late Mack and Pauline Barnes White. He was pre-deceased by his wife of 73 years, June Fleenor White of Davidson, on September 10, 2024 and by his brother, Donald B. White of Charlotte in 2021.

Surviving Mack are sons, Dr. Mack White III (Mary Virginia) of Charlotte, and James White (Julie) of Black Mountain, NC; grandsons Henry White, Lewis White and Gordon White, all of Charlotte; and great-grandsons, Aidan White and Everett White. Mack loved his family, appreciated his friends, and was well-trained by his pets - most recently, Rece and Molly, and Sally I and Sally II before them.

Mack attended Charlotte public schools, graduating from Central High School in 1946. He then earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson in 1950, when it was still an all-male South Carolina military ROTC college. Commissioned soon after as a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, Mack served two years' active duty during the Korean War. After his discharge, he joined Alcoa as a sales engineer and worked in Atlanta and Charlotte for six years before deciding in 1960 to form his own manufacturers' sales agency representing several companies in the metals field.

While living in Charlotte he was an active member of Covenant Presbyterian Church, where he served as an elder. With their boys launched into adulthood, in 1977 he and June purchased 22 wooded acres outside Davidson and built a retirement-type home for what would be a long "next-adult-chapter" of their own. Over the years since, Mack volunteered as a tutor at Davidson Elementary School; at La Escuelita Alban, a pre-kindergarten school; at Ada Jenkins Meals-on-Wheels program; and at the Mooresville Soup Kitchen. Mack also served his adopted hometown for six years on the Town of Davidson Planning Board.

"There is no such thing as too many books"

Years ago, Mack spotted this message on an auto bumper sticker and saved it because it so spoke to him. Long a passionate and multi-disciplinary reader, he came to believe that his solid engineering and military education needed the balance provided by rigorous study of the liberal arts as well. So even throughout his career and family-rearing years, Mack read deeply and steadily. He built a significant library with substantial focus in the psychology and ideas of the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung, as well as delving into the literature of such diverse paths as Ancient Chinese Philosophy, Religion, the Classics, Biography, History, and Poetry.

At one end of Mack's wide spectrum of interests, his list of favorite thinkers, authors, poets and other artists is long. Here's a sampling from his widely diverse range: Seamus Heaney, Bill Moyers, Confucius, I Ching, Dante, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, Richard Rohr, Thomas Moore, Joseph Campbell, Jack Miles, Robert Funk, The C.S Lewis Bible, Elaine Pagels, William James, Walker Percy, Alan Watts, Paul Tillich, Robertson Davies, Martin Borg, Cynthia Bourgeault, N.T. Wright, Edward Slingerland, and Jay Parini.

The poets include W.H. Auden, Wendell Berry, Ranier Maria Rilke, David Hinton, Mary Oliver, Gary Snyder, Phillip Larkin, Robert Bly, Wallace Stevens, Robinson Jeffers, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.

Yet Mack was no ivory-tower elitist. Over decades he enjoyed the work of Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz. His longtime favorite TV series was the vintage Gunsmoke, chosen especially for its humor and the practical, common-sense sayings of Festus Haggen and Doc Adams.

Contemplation

As Mack reflected on the life he viewed as a quest or a seeking journey, intuition guided him to the following lines by Emily Dickinson as most descriptive:

This world is not conclusion

A sequel stands beyond,

Invisible as music,

But positive as sound.

As with poetry, for Mack music came to represent important dimensions of the soulful life. Pianist Simone Dinnerstein's rendition of Bach Goldberg Variations expressed that. He believed music speaks to us in a language beyond words, and that the life we are seeking to live is one of harmony and rhythm. Through it we are invited and challenged to ponder God's divine mystery. In this regard, a prayer from the contemplative tradition of Thomas Merton held particular meaning for Mack:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead my by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Mack and his family have been most grateful to Dr. Ron Beamon of The Davidson Clinic for his many years of excellent care. At Mack's request, there will be no memorial service, and burial will be private for the family.

Memorial contributions may be made in Mack's memory to The Pines at Davidson Employee Fund, 400 Avinger Lane, Davidson, NC, 28036; Davidson College Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 337, Davidson, NC, 28036; or to charities of the donor's choice.

Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home & Cremation Services is caring for the family. Condolences and memories may be shared at www.KepnerFH.com