Philip Hayden White

Phil was born April 4, 1945, in Natick, Massachusetts to Rachel Wheat White and then-Lt. Harlow Hayden White. His father had been called to serve in the European theater as an Army Air Corps pilot. Phil attended his mother’s college graduation in 1946 in a baby carriage. The family moved to Lockport, NY in 1947, then Mishawaka, IN. in 1950, then South Bend, IN in 1951. He attended Stuckey School through 8th grade, when the family moved to Warwick, RI, in 1959. After a year at Samuel Gorton Junior High School in Warwick, RI, Phil entered Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH, in 1960. His main extracurricular activity was playing the saxophone for the Royal Exonians jazz ensemble. After attending Exeter, Phil was a history major at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, from 1964 to 1967, where he was also enrolled in ROTC. He was a saxophonist in the jazz ensemble, The Barbary Coast, as well as their business manager. He did his pre-clinical years of medical school at the University of Maryland in Baltimore from 1967 to 1969, then transferred to Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, MA, from whence he graduated in 1971. 

Phil served in a clinical clerkship between his 3rd and 4th years of medical school in the summer of 1970, at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco, CA. He did his internship as a Captain at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA, from 1971-1972. He then completed the Army Flight Surgeon’s Course as a distinguished graduate, at Ft. Rucker, AL. He served as a flight surgeon with the 9th Infantry Division at Ft. Lewis, WA. In 1973, he was assigned as the flight surgeon on the USNS Corpus Christi Bay during a French nuclear test in the South Pacific.

He was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, from 1973 through 1974, where he met his future wife, who was an Army Nurse Corps officer. He saw her walking down the hall with two children whose mother was in the clinic for an appointment and did not have a babysitter, so Zella became their temporary babysitter, while Mom received needed care. The children had a reputation for boisterous behavior, so he decided that anyone who could control them was worth getting to know. As they say, the rest is history. Phil was subsequently assigned to the Pentagon as the flight surgeon for the Military District of Washington. After the Pentagon, he was reassigned to the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea as the Division Surgeon. He put down roots in Texas in 1976, when he attended the Army Career Course and did a residency in ophthalmology at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX. He served as an ophthalmologist at Ft. Sill, OK after residency until he transferred to the Army Reserves and opened his private practice. He completed 20 years in the Reserves and retired as a Colonel.

Certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology and a Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Ophthalmology, he ran a solo private ophthalmology practice until he retired in 2014. He then served as a staff ophthalmologist for the VA at the Fort Worth Outpatient Clinic until illness forced his retirement in 2025. During his tenure at the VA, he was a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Phil engaged in numerous medically related volunteer activities. He enjoyed exhibiting and driving his vintage automobiles at car shows. He was a talented and versatile musician as well, playing saxophone, keyboards, and singing backup in jazz, R&B, and rock bands from the time he was in high school until well into his 70s. He believed that real men love cats, as evidenced by his love for his two special girls, Eleanoir and Cindy Lou, as well as numerous other “free” cats who adopted our family over the years.

A loving and beloved husband and father, Phil married Zella Marie Hubbard on November 23, 1974. Their daughter, Meridith Leigh, was born November 14, 1988. In addition to his wife and daughter, Phil is survived by three sisters: Katherine White Drew of Rockville, Maryland; Sarah White Crosby of Randolph, Vermont; and Mary Alyce Hare of Belgrade, Montana; two stepsisters: Antonia Sunderland, of Ottsville, Pennsylvania; and Mary Sunderland of Antibes, France; and a sister-in-law, Eileen Sunderland of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as well as six nieces, two nephews, four great-nieces, and three great-nephews. Also left to remember him fondly are the many extended family members, countless friends, patients, colleagues, and students over the years. His kindness, empathy, and dedication are irreplaceable. The world has lost a very good person.

Phil chose to be interred in Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, WA. In lieu of flowers, he requested donations be made to Simmons Cancer Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX, Hematology Service or to the Vietnam Veterans of America.

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