Intern Josh Shares His Thoughts On Retiring Professor, Dr. Dale White

We are fortunate every semester, to work with great interns here at Townsquare Media. The past few months, Josh Koslowski, a senior at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University has been working hard for us. One of his projects was to write about something (or someone) important to him. And today we're happy to share his thoughts about Dr. Dale White:

Like all great legendary careers, another will soon be coming to an end.  Long time and truly beloved professor and performer Dr. Dale White will be reaching the end of his career as he takes his much deserved retirement at the end of this school year.

Dr. White has been teaching for 38 years and has spent the last 35 years teaching at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University.  He has spent those years as a professor of brass and director of the wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, and brass choir.  He has also spent time teaching first year seminar courses, conducting classes, as well as a jazz history class.  Dr. White is an amazing trumpet player who performed with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Spoleto, Italy in 1975 and has spent the last few years performing with a faculty group called Pastiche.

Dr. White was by far my favorite professor from the moment I arrived at CSB/SJU, and I have had him every semester since then. I’m now a senior about to graduate.  He is an extremely funny and energetic man who is full of so much knowledge that it is impossible to leave an encounter with him and not be smiling and full of some new information.  He helped me through my early years here at school when I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  Dr. White was there to calmly point me in the right direction.  I can honestly say that he was the first professor whose name I actually remembered, and for a long time one of the only professors I felt comfortable talking to.

One of my fondest memories I have of Dr. White is the trip we took to Disney World my freshmen year.  We were all sitting on the stage preparing to perform and then he pulls out one of his goofy hats, probably Mickey ears or something to fit the occasion, which he frequently wears, and like nothing is off, he signals the start and we all begin to play through our giggling and smiling faces.  Dr. White frequently did this, among other things just to show that, well, this is an important performance it doesn’t mean we can’t still have fun.  His relaxed, yet professional personality is something that I know I will, and I’m sure others, faculty and students alike, will greatly miss.

Dr. Dale White will be retiring at the end of this school year with his final performance being at the CSB/SJU graduation ceremonies on May 17^th and 18^th.  There are still a few opportunities left to catch Dr. White’s conducting performances.  April 7^th will be a chamber concert at 8:00 in the SBH on the St. John’s campus and April 26^th will be a joint concert with the brass choir and wind ensemble at 7:30 in Escher Auditorium on the St. Benedict’s campus.  These concerts among many others can be found on the Fine Arts page of the college website.  While more on Dr. White can be found on his college page.

Dr. White will be greatly missed and it would be a shame to not see one of his fantastic performances before he retires.

Do you remember, or currently have a favorite professor from high school or college? Do you have any memories of a professor from your time in school?  If so let me know.

I would love to hear from you.  Josh Koslowski