Katherine with good friend, Alice Balcer

Childhood ...

Katherine, the only child of Rufus and Marguerite White, was born March 23, 1920 in Syracuse New York.

"Childhood was a happy time. I enjoyed school and learning. Dancing lessons were fun, but piano lessons were boring. I spent summer vacations with grandparents in rural Northern New York."

Who was the most important influence in your life?

"A country doctor, who in the 1920's, made house calls to treat my grandmother on her farm. He allowed me to carry his medical bag in and out of the house, taught me the names of the instruments he carried and which I handed him when he asked, taught me about the variously colored pills in packets. When I became older he took me on house calls in his Model T Ford Coupe to assist him. Also he took me to his office to count out so many pink, green, white, blue, purple, brown and black pills and place them in labeled pill envelopes and to restock his medical bag. I looked forward to summers so I could help him."

Katherine White, M.D. 1987

"I drove a car in Michigan at age 13 yrs. Was valedictorian of my High School Graduating Class 1937 and received a four-year New York State Board of Regents Scholarship which I used to take a premedical program at Syracuse University (then a private school)."

Upon graduation as valedictorian of the 1941 College of Liberal Arts, Katherine entered the university's College of Medicine. She was one of three women among 44 men. She was the only woman to graduate and graduated summa cum laude.