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St. John’s Gospel, verbatim. But schools now have de-emphasized memorization, a major reason, he believes, for the decline in educational achievement. There is, in addition, the discarding of anything "demanding" from most of the curriculum.

What is emphasized by most schools’ curricula, and sought in the classroom, are courses that will develop "creativity" in the student. That objective is increasingly more difficult, since both writing ability and reading skills have notably weakened in many a school environment.

Young David, however, was to have several fortunate aspects of his early life: he was blessed with "decent public schools," and, in his case, female teachers, often unmarried, "who regarded their students as their children." One of them provided David with books that began his interest in literature, most notably, David Copperfield, "which changed my life," and then Shakespeare, "which gave me my profession." Is was to this teacher that Prof. White dedicated one of his earliest publications, "Shakespeare A-Z." She had fulfilled the prediction that "a teacher affects eternity."

But there was another aspect of David’s young life that was instrumental in his development: the best readers, both then and now, he maintains, "had their mothers read to them." White: "You take the mother out of the home and everything falls apart," a theme that would be often repeated by Bishop Williamson. In his later experience as a Professor of Literature at both Temple University in Philadelphia, and the U.S.

Naval Academy, it was demonstrated over and over again, that the best writers in the class were also the most devoted readers, many, if not most, of whom had listened as their mothers read them bedtime stories.

After obtaining his Ph. D. in Literature, "Doc" White’s first teaching position was at Temple University in Philadelphia, which lasted a decade, and was a major factor in his life today. It was at Temple, a school of 30,000 students, that he was to meet one student who would change his life. This student "knew more than I did, and began challenging me in class."

So began Prof.

White’s search for answers and the truth, including God.

The student was also to serve as a formative part of White’s religious education and development.

This "most intelligent student I’ve ever had" would, six months later, be received into the Catholic Church, but for his professor, he went an additional mile: he literally traveled all over the Philadelphia area to find the "right" priest to speak toWhite, and in E. Landsdowne, a Philadelphia suburb, he found Msgr. Dean. This "great old priest" received David Allen White into the Catholic Church on December 6, 1979, the Feast of St. Nicholas. The priest warned the new convert: "You are coming into the Church in the worst time in its history.

Hold on." Ironically, White’s student did not "hold on." Proclaiming the Church " a mess," he left, but White stayed: his journey had begun. "Tradition" came to White after accepting a teaching position at the U.S.

Naval Academy in 1981, where he would teach Shakespeare and direct the Academy’s Theatre Program, a position, he claims, "made for me." White: "You can’t get more traditional or Catholic than Shakespeare." It was also made for dozens of students who were so impressed by Professor White’s Shakespeare course that it served as a basis for not only their literary interests, but their spiritual ones, too. Allow a digression.

I know, and correspond with, a former White student and USNA graduate, whose registration for the Shakespeare course had an amazing impact on his life.

While studying "A Winter’s Tale," the midshipman decided to write his course paper on Catholic imagery in the play, which was unusual: the student was not Catholic...at least not then. Over the course of years, that symbolism refused to leave him. In time, that term paper grew into a book, a copy of which I have. But that was not all White had done: to this day, this now attorney claims that "Doc" White changed his life not only in literature, but in spirituality as well: he became, and still is, a devout Traditional Catholic, and still deeply devoted to Professor White. I could spend the rest of this article just citing similar cases, I assure you.

There is another aspect to the Pied Piper’s role in converting dozens of midshipmen to the Catholic Church which should also be addressed: in an institution such as the U.S. Naval Academy, how did White succeed with so many? What White practiced personally, he insists, did not extend into the classroom: "I never ever would proselytize in the classroom...that’s not what I was there for... I would sit in my office with the door open, with a copy of the 1903 Catholic encyclopedia on the shelf."

Many of the midshipmen, "who came in clusters," and planned to convert, did so only after first visiting the Catholic chaplain on the Academy’s grounds at Prof White’s insistence. More often than not, the prelate would question the midshipmen’s intent for converting: "Why would you want to do that?" Conversion, it appeared, was not included in this chaplain’s job description. White also singled out for praise the labors of Fr. Ronald Ringrose, Pastor of St. Athanasius, who, in "making clear to the midshipmen what was necessary to understand about the Faith," was of immeasurable help to the students of "the Pied Piper of Tradition."

Another digression: I mentioned two women among the dozens of men who were converted by the Pied Piper of Tradition. One of them, a "hugely talented" bass player in the Academy’s band, served in the U.S. Marine Corps after graduation.

After leaving, she became a postulate and later a Franciscan Sister Religious of the SSPX in Kansas City, the first Marine Corps officer ever to follow that path, and White modestly claims that he was "God’s instrument" in that conversion. With equally great pride, White added: "She has taught the children of my former students." The other became a veterinarian and currently resides in Post Falls, Idaho, deeply attached to the SSPX community there.

Overall, however, White believes that the introduction of women into the Academy has been disastrous: "I could fill pages telling you horror stories." And if that is not enough, this: "The country has gone mad."

As one of White’s former students, and a convert to Tradition, recently told me: "He taught us about religion through literature." No better example of that statement could be demonstrated than that, through the teaching of Dante’s "Inferno," many potential converts appeared at Prof. White’s open door. Why were they attracted? Why Dante? White mentions the papal encyclical of Pope Benedict XV proclaiming Dante the Church’s poetic artist, and future converts were attracted to this epic hero because of Dante’s role as the Pilgrim, one soul trying to make his way to understand the whole of the ideas that we are part of. It should be noted that the administrators of the Naval Academy allowed White to teach "The Inferno" on the condition that another instructor teach a course on the Koran at the same time.

"Diversity is heralded," he added, "but diversity of thought is unacceptable." In this regard, White is convinced that of all the modern writers, Alexander Solzhenitsyn "...

towers above all others. He is our giant."

According to White, the primary concern of the modern world is, "the hatred of Christ," and Solzhenitsyn’s novels describe how that hatred has destroyed society; in this case, Russian society.

Regarding White’s latest publication, a bio of Bishop Williamson, a personal observation. The very first time I saw Bishop Williamson is also quite memorable: it was my belief then, which I hold to this day, that if Hollywood wished to cast someone who had all of the outward trappings of a bishop, Bishop Williamson would be its man. He looked the part. But the White bio of the prelate reveals other aspects of the bishop’s life that will surprise the reader: for example, Bishop Williamson was rejected twice as a seminarian, including a "Thanks, but no thanks" from the Oratory in London. After that rejection, the future bishop would now go to Econe, and then become a member of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X. White’s biography of Bishop Richard N. ("Nelson," whose mother’s family is from Pennsylvania) is his third bio of giants within the Traditional Catholic movement:

The Mouth of the Lion, dealt with the life of Bishop Castro Mayer;

The Horn and the Unicorn, with the life of Archbishop Lefebvre, and now

The Voice of the Trumpet. What makes this biography different is thatWhite makes it clear from the very beginning: "I am writing about a friend." That friendship, nurtured over three decades, is evident in White’s description of the life of Bishop Williamson, a cleric who, White is convinced, "...has no ego. His concern is simply saving souls."

White insists there are two indispensable rules by which Bishop Williamson lives as a priest, but which have caused him problems throughout his clerical career: first and foremost, the overriding importance of doctrine; then, and tied to that rule, the bishop’s unshakable faith in "objective reality," something that is outside of us, but knowledgeable, in the search for Truth. The search for Truth is often the search for God. White: "The keystone of that system of thought and thus the basis of Bishop Williamson’s world view was the primacy of objective reality."

It is evident that what Williamson found as the key to understanding Catholic thought and doctrine was encapsulated in St.

Thomas’s

Summa. The future bishop found there "counsels, and reasons and answers," which were "the essentials for modern Catholics." It may surprise the reader to know that Pope Francis described the morality of his papal exhortation, thus: "the morality of

Amoris Laetitia is Thomist."

One wonders if "the Angelic Doctor" would have agreed.

One cannot finish White’s bio of Bishop Williamson without a detailed account of the public controversy that has grown up around the bishop. The last quarter of the book is White’s "Apologia" of the bishop, who was expelled from the SSPX, and whose talks at the seminary were deleted. Yet, to White, that situation has not changed the bishop’s attitude about his role as a priest. White: "...from the moment of his conversion and reception into the Roman Catholic Church, Williamson was convinced our Lord, reigns over all of life, every sphere of human existence, every pursuit, every study, every action..." To confine Catholic Truth and isolate it in a hospital-like ‘church ward" is to suggest that the highest Truth must be quarantined like a disease...and not wander out into the wide world." In that regard, Bishop Williamson will not "go gently into the night," for there is still much to be done.

When one reaches a certain age - mine you tend to look back over your life, and recognize certain individuals are indelibly etched in your mind; simply put, they are unforgettable. I have been fortunate enough to have known three such men, devout Catholics who approached their devotion in distinct ways.The late JusticeAntonin

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Doc White and Michael Davies

Doc. White Interview,

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Scalia was one. His devotion to the Faith was such that, according to his son, "it made him a better judge." His chambers had a copy of the Holbein portrait and a bust of St.Thomas More, the Justice’s idol. In my experience in dealing with public figures, no one else was as open about his dedication to the Church.

Another was the internationallly acclaimed Shakespearean scholar, Fr. Peter Milward, S.J. He was a prime mover in establishing the Catholic background and beliefs of William Shakespeare, and it cannot be denied that he sas the first to emphasize that, within Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, were to be found the "hidden language" of a Recusant.

Both the late Justice and Jesuit were men of remarkable and profound scholarship.

David Allen "Doc" White completes this triumverate.

It is difficult to distinguish what attracted so many men and women to follow this "Pied Piper of Tradtion" into the Church.

The impact he had on so many students at the U.S. Naval Academy was unique; no one comes close to equal - forget surpass - his yeoman’s service in the cause of Tradition. And that influence extended among so many of his converts after their departure: according to White, 144 (no typo) children have been brought into the world of Traditional Catholic families from those souls who converted.

But I would be remiss if I did not also mention that, despite his accomplishments in the conversion of others, he is also one of the funniest and most engaging person to be around. When he spoke to the Sodalists at our church, my wife was effusive in her praise, for he is a spell-binding storyteller, whose unforgettable voice resonates: "You should hear him read poetry," was another of my wife’s comments. If I had to summarize what makes David Allen White special, i would say that, at least to me, he is "sui generis" - one of a kind. Winchester is not terribly far from my home, and it is my express hope that out paths will cross often in the future. To know this man has been a great honor; indeed, one might also call it a "blessing."

I end on a personal note: to know "Doc" White is to recognize how much of his life has been devoted to the fostering of the belief that the Catholic Church is God’s creation.

As a teacher and friend, I believe that the Bard said it best in describing this "Pied Piper of Tradition:" "His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world: This was a man."■