Remembering John White

John P. White, a member of the Belfer Center’s Board of Directors and a former Kennedy School professor and Deputy Secretary of Defense, passed away on September 3, 2017 at the age of 80. Here, Belfer Center Director Ash Carter shares his memories:

John White was my dear friend and close colleague for many years. I first got to know him well during the late 1990s. 

My friendship with John began at the Kennedy School when he was Director of the Center for Business and Government (now the Mossavar-Rahmani Center). John was a major architect of bipartisan approaches to the federal budget woes of the time, which are sadly not that different from today’s. His ideas were widely hailed. 

John and I grew closer when we both served in the Defense Department during the Clinton administration.  He was Deputy Secretary of Defense to both Secretaries Bill Perry and Bill Cohen. One of his many accomplishments at the Pentagon during that period was to make the All-Volunteer Force, which replaced the draft, a success.  I learned a great deal from the managerial skill and dedication to the troops John showed. He was also an example of civility and good comportment of the kind so often missing in today’s Washington.

But we worked most closely while at Harvard from 1998 to 2008. I had the privilege to teach with John. He was attentive and generous with his time and the students loved him. You could see how much he meant to them when he and his wife Betty hosted them in their Back Bay home.

The students showed their deep appreciation for John in 2004 by selecting him for the Manuel Carballo Teaching Award—an award that recognizes a faculty member’s dedication to students, excellence in the professional field, and commitment to public service. 

Dedication. Excellence. Commitment. Traits John embodied in every aspect of his life, but especially his professional career. His teaching legacy now includes a world populated with alumni who strive to make the world a safer place, all the while maintaining the professional standards and common decency to which he held himself accountable throughout his career.

Those of us at the Belfer Center have lost a close friend. The Kennedy School has lost one of its greats. The United States has lost a great defense leader. The world has lost a noble man who embodied all that is good and decent in public life.