WHITE, GALLAGHER

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Monday, February 26, 2007 at 09:06:23 :

Marin Independent Journal
Wednesday, October 31, 1990
Section B, page 2

DR. ALBERT E. WHITE
Former Mill Valley mayor

Dr. Albert E. White, a former mayor of Mill Valley and chief of staff of Kaiser Hospital in San Rafael until 1981, died Tuesday at age 62. He had been battling liver cancer.

Dr. White joined Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in 1961. He became physician in chief of the Marin County clinic in 1965, which placed him in charge of the planning and construction of the hospital in Terra Linda.

In 1975, when the facility was completed, he was appointed chief of staff. He held that position for six years.

Dr. White was elected to the Mill Valley City Council in 1964 and became mayor in 1966. During his tenure, Mill Valley became one of the first cities in the nation to pass a resolution calling for a political rather than a military solution to the Vietnam War.

In 1965, he took part in the Selma-Montgomery civil rights march in Alabama and formed a Bay Area Chapter of the Medical Committee for Human Rights to provide emergency medical services for civil rights workers and to work against discriminatory health practices.

When he returned from the civil rights march in the south, he gave a brief report of his experience before a council meeting.

“I don’t say we don’t have (civil rights) problems in Marin,” he said. “I think we must do the best we can to rectify injustice and inequalities that exist everywhere.”

Under Dr. White’s leadership, the council also adopted height limits on outdoor advertising and established the city’s Throckmorton Avenue library.

He was also a dedicated collector of Jack London first editions and memorabilia.

He is survived by his mother, Paula White of Los Angeles; a brother, concert pianist Julian White of Kensington; three sons, Matthew White of Larkspur, Joel White of Petaluma and Douglas White, a student at U.C. San Diego; two daughters, Margo Gallagher of Petaluma and Sarah White, a student at U.C. Santa Cruz; and four grandchildren.

Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at Daphne Fernwood Mortuary, 301 Tennessee Valley Road, Mill Valley. The family requests memorial contributions to Cystic Fibrosis Research, Inc., in Palo Alto.