Charles O. White
Charles O. White
Charles O. White was a father, grandfather, leader, coach, teacher, and follower of Christ. He influenced Woodcrest Christian School in a way that is hard to put into words, and more stories of people he impacted continue to unfold even after his passing.
Chuck White was born in 1941, the eighth of nine children. He grew up in a religious home, and attended church with his parents. Chuck was a goal-setter from an early age. He decided he wanted to be a lawyer, and began taking steps to pursue a career in law. In high school he met Diann, which he said was “the second best thing” that ever happened to him. The first best thing, he said, was coming to know the Lord. Soon the two were married, and they had four children: Kim, Liz, Brian, and Jeff. The Whites attended a small church together in Riverside, Bible Fellowship of Riverside. However, Chuck’s journey to faith in Christ was only beginning.
At this time, Chuck’s wife Diann was looking for a place to enroll their daughter Kim in school. Their church neighbored the nearby school on Arlington Avenue with a sign out front that read “Riverside Christian Day School.” Diann felt that this would be a good place for the children to go, and took a leap of faith and trust in God that it was the right thing. As a student at RCDS, Kim was taught Bible memory verses each week, and brought them home to her family. One of the administrators, Randy Thompson, led Kim to the Lord. Kim’s faith had a huge impact on Chuck, and he was influenced to believe in the school’s mission and ultimately come to faith in Jesus.
Things changed when Chuck’s dad suddenly passed away, leaving him questioning the bigger picture of life after death. Chuck shared, “The love of God came over me and He said ‘do you believe there’s eternal life? Did your dad die in vain? Is that all there is to your dad’s life? Is he gone?’” Through a tragedy, Chuck was able to see and hear the voice of God, and he was transported back to his days growing up in the church, remembering where God said He was, in the Bible. Chuck always spoke lovingly of his mom, saying she “best exemplified what Christianity is all about, constantly caring, love and dependence on God for everything that’s happening.” His interest in Christianity stemmed from her example.
Chuck came to be a believer through a myriad of influences and consistent ministry around him, but perhaps the most significant conversation came to be in his home with two close friends, Jim and Pauline. After a long night of discussion, around 2:00 AM Chuck asked Jesus Christ to come into his life. In a recording of his testimony, Chuck shared, “there was total assurance that Jesus Christ was real, that there was eternal life, and that I had that life because I had Him and that life was His Son.” In that moment and forevermore, he proclaimed that Jesus is Lord, and understood that “He not only created me, He not only died for my sins, but He wanted to be in control of my life.” Diann recalls that Saturday night when he accepted the Lord, and his excitement to go to church together with her in-laws the next morning.
Later in life after coming to faith, Chuck became a leader in the church and at Woodcrest Christian School where his children attended. He never went to seminary, but he voraciously read and gleaned insight from books, primarily the Bible. Diann laughed and said, “He was a sponge.” Chuck went on to teach a few Bible classes at Woodcrest Christian and California Baptist University. He was invited on the Board of Directors at WCS within one or two years of serving the school in smaller capacities, filling in the gaps when needed. While on the Board, he started the tradition of gathering for dinners and staff celebrations, often held at his own home. His son, Jeff White remembers throughout middle and high school that “having all the teachers coming over to our house was fun and kind of scary at the same time!” Chuck also instilled the practice of a unanimous Board vote, something that is still upheld today.
Chuck’s philosophy was that God, family, and a good work ethic were the most important things in life. He said, “Whether we like it or not, each one of us are made up of the totality of our life, our history, our background, the family we’re born to, the way we’re raised, our current situation, our current goals, the commitments we have…all those things determine the kind of person we’re going to become.” Chuck firmly believed that God wants people that are totally reliant on Him for their salvation, saying, “He wants us to be totally dependent upon Him and His resources for everything that’s happening in our life. He wants us to order our life in such a way that He can show himself strong in and through us for His honor and His glory.”
Until his last days, Chuck was very relational, kind, and gentle. He laid down the law when necessary, but leaned in and listened. He made sure that things got done and had great expectations for people to thrive. No matter how much was going on, he was always there for the important things with his family. Denise White, Jeff’s wife, said that as parents raising children, “there is what’s caught and what’s taught, but he did both,” with the love of Christ in his heart.
Chuck had invested his heart and soul into Woodcrest Christian, and his passing was a heavy burden for his family and all who had experienced him at the school. In his time and involvement with the school, he proposed and began efforts on a gymnasium. The pavilion was in construction when he passed away. The White family felt that the best place for the funeral was inside the gym itself, though it was not completed. The gym was bare, only walls, no air conditioning, no bathrooms, and no electricity. Denise commented, “it sounded like the worst space ever to have his service, but because of his love for the school and the influence he had on not just building it, but building people’s lives, building the school, building the staff, it was just the most appropriate place.” Of the 1,000+ people that came out to the funeral, many wondered, “how could you take away such a generous Godly man?” One of those individuals was Rhonda Gilbert, who had worked for Chuck for a short time. She was so impacted by his testimony and gospel presentation that she gave her life to Christ right then and there at the funeral. It is stories like hers that the White family can look back on and see the light that came from Chuck’s life and death, and continue to live out the legacy. Shortly after the funeral, the Board decided to finish the project in Chuck’s honor and name the pavilion after him.
Chuck White served Woodcrest Christian faithfully because he believed in the mission and purpose behind it. He loved the family and cultivated a professional, yet relational and Christ-centered environment to learn, work, and live. He began a legacy; Woodcrest Christian is in the DNA of the White family. He changed the lives of many and planted seeds that we continue to see grow as stories unfold in the years following his passing. Most of all, Chuck lived as a follower of Christ, and committed his life to building the kingdom in and through his church, family and friends, workplace, and Woodcrest Christian.
