Professor Stephen Solomon White was...
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Professor Stephen Solomon White was my major professor at Olivet Nazarene College, Kankakee, Illinois. If Professor White were living today, I think he'd consent to how I describe him here. He stood perhaps 5-9 and was slight of build. His hair was thin, his eyes seemed half closed much of the time. He was often caught reading with his tongue partly hanging out and his head off to one side. He would seem unaware even of what he was doing. His general looks, the way he seemed to be, was that of a man unable to think much and surely unable to think deeply. A local merchant asked me once, "Would your Professor White know enough to come out of the rain?" But the facts sketched a different picture. S. S. White had five or six earned degrees including those from Drew and The University of Chicago. He had been one of Professor Edgar Sheffield Brightman's star pupils. More than all of that, however, Professor S.S. White was a good man, good in the sense of being sensitive to a student's struggles and to a student's need for extra help. He gave the appearance of a comic or a fool, yes, but those of us who moved close to him learned of his great stature as a scholar and also as a human being who cared. -- Hoornstra
