Woodie W. White

Woodie Walter White (born 1935) is an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1984. Birth and family Woodie was born on August 27, 1935, in New York City. He is married to the former Jennie (Kim) Tolson, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts. She attended Clark University in Worcester, and holds degrees from Howard Community College and Towson University. An elementary school teacher, Mrs. White was honored as the 1992 "Teacher of the Year" by the Springfield, Illinois School District. The Whites have four daughters: Kimberly Yvette, Hope Angela, Valerie Elizabeth, and Sharon Denise, and one son, Bryan Michael. Education Woodie graduated from the DeWitt Clinton High School in the West Bronx in New York City in 1953 and from Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, in 1958. He earned an S.T.B. (Bachelor of Sacred Theology) from Boston University School of Theology in 1961. While attending BU he served a pastorate in Worcester, Massachusetts. He then became a Probationary Member of the Detroit Annual Conference and was appointed the Associate Pastor of the East Grand Boulevard Methodist Church in Detroit, and in 1963 became the pastor. In 1967 he began two years as an Urban Missioner for the Conference work in Metropolitan Detroit. When the United Methodist Church established a General Commission on Religion and Race in 1968, Rev. White became its first General Secretary, serving in that capacity until 1984. The North Central Jurisdictional Conference of the U.M. Church elected him Bishop in 1984 and assigned him to the Illinois Area, which he served 1984-1992. In 1992 Bishop White was assigned to the Indiana Area, from which he retired on September 1, 2004.