     |
A Life Story
On the verge of retirement, a professor reflects on his life at Centre and before Centre for the annual Omicron Delta Kappa Life Stories convocation. This is an abridged version of his remarks.
by Brent White, Matton Professor of Psychology
By the time I was 19, I had traveled all the way from my home in Salt Lake City east to Vernal, Utah, on the border with Colorado, south to the Grand Canyon, north to Yellowstone National Park, and west all the way to Fort Ord, Calif., at the pleasure of the United States Army. So you might say that I had not had a terribly diverse upbringing at that point.
My family was very involved in the Mormon Church, as I was. And as most of my friends were doing, I decided to do the missionary thing. For some reason, this guy who had traveled at most to two states and a few hundred miles from his birthplace was sent halfway around the globe to southern Africa.
It turns out that 1961 was a fascinating time to be in southern Africa. Within days of my arrival in Johannesburg, the Union of South Africa made its official separation from the British Commonwealth and changed the name to the Republic of South Africa. I spent the next six months in Salisbury (now called Harare), Southern Rhodesia. At that time Southern Rhodesia was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Before I would leave Africa in May of 1963, Nyasaland would secede and become independent Malawi, Northern Rhodesia would become the independent republic of Zambia, and Southern Rhodesia became Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and subsequently declared its independence from Britain.
Southern Africa in the 1960s was sort of an eye opener to me in terms of learning what it was like for people to be oppressed. Jackson and Nathan were the “house boys” in one of the places that we lived in Salisbury. They were our age, 19, so we talked with them a lot. Nathan was a student, studying in school to become a teacher. He was working at this particular job in order to buy a typewriter. The landlady that we lived with was really quite verbally abusive with them, and of course she paid them very little, practically nothing.
In addition to social issues, I also developed an interest in animal behavior from my experience in Africa—and an interest in homemade ginger beer.
My missionary experience broadened my perspective on the human condition; however, it did not provide the certain answers that I had sought in terms of the theological story of life. My return to college at the University of Utah resulted in a more thorough exposure to the naturalistic story of life. And this became a more satisfying basis for my personal beliefs. Graduate school and a career teaching in college allowed me to stay in an intellectually stimulating atmosphere.
There were probably three things that really impressed me about Centre at the time that were somewhat unique to my situation. One was that they had established several interdisciplinary programs,
psychobiology being one of them. This allowed me to focus on my interest in the interface between psychology and biology. The sciences were in one building at that time, and so it provided a good opportunity for collaboration among colleagues. And I could teach an introductory life science course that integrated psychology and biology.
Centre provided me a context where there were good students and good professional colleagues available for collaborations. Those collaborations have been among the most satisfying experiences of my career. We’ve had 65 co-authored presentations at professional meetings from these collaborations and 17 of those have been published in professional journals. There should be more to come, now that I will have more time to write.
Brent White, who retired in May 2007 after 36 years at Centre, spoke at the annual Omicron Delta Kappa Life Stories convocation in April. This is an abridged version of his remarks. He began his reflections when he was at the same age as many in the audience.
For the first half of his career, he was interested in the neuro- and psychopharmacology of stimulants and depressants. In 1986 he turned in a different direction when his long collaboration with the Louisville Zoo and interest in conservation developed into a more focused study of the zoo’s woolly monkeys, and later gorillas. President and a founding director of the Woolly Monkey Foundation, he was named Outstanding College/University Teacher by the Kentucky Academy of Science in 2003.
—D.F.J.
Centrepiece
Centre College
600 West Walnut St.
Danville, KY 40422
Phone: (859) 238-5717
Fax: (859) 238-5723
E-mail: alumnews@centre.edu
or johnsond@centre.edu