Richard Paul White Ph.D's Obituary
Richard Paul White, Ph.D. "Boom-boom", died March 12, 2024 at the age of 98. He was born May 27, 1925. Dr. White grew up in East Chicago, Indiana and attended Indiana State where he met and upon graduation married Ethel Mae White on June 8, 1947. He then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he taught first year medical students while pursuing his doctorate degree in Physiology, and where his first son, Paul was born.
The family moved to Galesburg, Illinois, where Dr. White did neuropharmacological research and where their second son, Thurman was born. Dr. White came to Memphis in 1956 and joined the College of Medicine to mainly teach neuropharmacology for 44 years.
The family joined Christ United Methodist Church in 1956.
He moved to the Villages of Germantown in 1962 when all the roads were two lanes and there were no stoplights. In Germantown, he served as an Assistant Scout Master from 1965 to 1972 and earned the Order of the Arrow.
He worked in England for one year and his research took him to nine countries, including Japan. Much of his research dealt with drugs that affected cerebral circulation. Beginning in 1977, he served six years on the Editorial Board of the prestigious journal "Circulation Research". In academia, Dr. White received six teaching awards, authored 174 research reports, twenty book chapters, and after retirement as a professor emeritus in 2000 published "Bibles, Science, and Sanity" as well as "Wrestlers in History", a comprehensive history of the sport.
Dr. White loved sophisticated humor and atticism and in 1989 was elected Garrideb of the local Sherlock society, The Giant Rats of Sumatra. He was also a member of the fun group, Memphis Scottish Society.
He leaves his two sons; Dr. Paul Wickey White (Patty) and Dr. Thurman Richard White (Teresa), four grandsons, two granddaughters, and eleven great grandchildren.
Services for Dr. White will be held Monday, March 25, 2024 at 2:00 at Memorial Park Funeral Home, 5668 Poplar Ave, Memphis, Tennessee 38119. The family requests that in lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Germantown United Methodist Church (901-754-7216) or charity of choice.
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