Thomas J. White (March 10, 1920January 7, 2011) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was a co-founder of Partners In Health and estimated that he gave away more than $75 million to various charities.

Early life, education, and military service

Thomas J. White was born on March 10, 1920, in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, to Joseph F. White and Dorothy Aylward White. He attended Cambridge Latin School and graduated in 1942 with a bachelor's degree in

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

. He joined the U.S. Army a week later to become a paratrooper and an officer. During World War II, he was an aide to Brigadier General Maxwell Taylor, commander of the

101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operati ...

, with whom he parachuted into France the night before the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. He later parachuted into Holland. He received a

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...

and a

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

with an oak leaf cluster for his service.

Career

After the war, White joined his family's construction firm, J.F. White Contracting Co., named after his father who founded the company. White became majority owner and chief executive of the company. During his tenure, J.F. White Contracting helped build the

Charles River Dam The Charles River Dam is a flood control structure on the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts, located just downstream of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, near Lovejoy Wharf, on the former location of the Warren Bridge. His ...

Foxboro Stadium Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England Pa ...

, Park Plaza Hotel, and part of Boston's

MBTA subway The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates rapid transit (heavy rail), light rail, and bus rapid transit services in the Boston metropolitan area, collectively referred to as the rapid transit, subway, or the T system. The c ...

system.

Political contributions

White was a major fundraiser for

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

and a friend of

the family A family is a domestic or social group. Family or The Family may also refer to: Mathematics *Family of curves, a set of curves resulting from a function with variable parameters *Family of sets, a collection of sets *Indexed family, a family wh ...

. White was the chief organizer of fund-raising efforts in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

Philanthropy

After ensuring his family's financial stability, White resolved "to die as close to penniless as possible" by giving away his wealth to charity. He estimated a few years before his death that he had given away more than $75 million to various philanthropic causes; he also kept a stack of bills in his pocket which he would distribute to random strangers he met. In 1987, he co-founded Partners In Health with

Paul Farmer Paul Edward Farmer (October 26, 1959 – February 21, 2022) was an American medical anthropology, medical anthropologist and physician. Farmer held an MD and PhD from Harvard University, where he was a Harvard University Professor, University ...

Ophelia Dahl Ophelia Magdalena Dahl (born 12 May 1964) is a British-American social justice and health care advocate. Dahl co-founded Partners In Health (PIH), a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization dedicated to providing a "prefere ...

, Jim Yong Kim, and Todd McCormack. White provided the initial funding to the non-profit organization with the goal of developing the healthcare systems in

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

. White reportedly raised $30 million for the charity, with $20 million of it coming from White himself.

Personal life and death

In 1947, White married Margaret Flynn, with whom he had seven children. They later divorced. In 1971, he married Lois Driscoll, who herself had six children. White died on January 7, 2011, at the age of 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Thomas J. 1920 births 2011 deaths Businesspeople from Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge Rindge and Latin School alumni Harvard College alumni Military personnel from Massachusetts 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists