Reverend James D. White, 83, died on Sunday, July 17, 2022, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was living in retirement. He was a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma for over fifty years.

A rosary will be offered at Holy Family Cathedral, located at Eighth and Boulder, on Wednesday, July 20, starting at 6:30pm. A funeral Mass will be offered on Thursday, July 21, at 10:00am, also at Holy Family Cathedral. Most Reverend David Konderla, Bishop of Tulsa, will preside. Cremation will follow, with internment of the remains in the priests' section of Calvary Cemetery in Tulsa.

James David White was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 15, 1939. He attended public schools until he was enrolled in a local parochial school, after which he and his family were received into the Catholic Church on Christmas Eve of 1949.

Having determined to be a priest, he attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago (1953-58), St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois (1958-64), and Assumption Seminary, San Antonio, Texas (1967-69). His ordination to the priesthood took place at St. Joseph's Church in Norman, Oklahoma, on February 21, 1969, at the hands of Bishop Victor J. Reed, of the Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Prior to his ordination he worked briefly in a Chicago bank, taught in an elementary school, and was employed for two years by the Catholic Church Extension Society, a missionary funding agency with headquarters in Chicago. As part of his duties, he developed for publication (several million copies annually) an appointment calendar which used contemporary photographs to illustrate passages from Scripture. He continued as editor of this project for several years, even after his ordination and his move to Oklahoma.

He had a long interest in heraldry, and when an officer of the Extension Society was named bishop, he had the opportunity to design a coat of arms for him. This interest, never more than an extended hobby, ultimately resulted in more than forty heraldic projects commissioned by bishops, abbots, dioceses and parishes. In this capacity he had the honor to designing the coat of arms of the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma.

While he was a student in the Texas seminary, he becomes involved in the planning for a new chapel on the campus, to be designed by the well-known architect, O'Neil Ford, of San Antonio. This experience would prove helpful to him in his later career.

His first assignment as a priest was as associate pastor of Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa, Oklahoma (1969-72). As a new resident of the state, he became fascinated with Oklahoma history, especially the history of the Catholic Church in Oklahoma. He was encouraged in this by Bishop Reed, and he began the research that would eventually result in a dozen books and numerous articles and monographs. This interest was formalized in 1980, when he was named historian of the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma.

In 1972 he received his first pastorate, Immaculate Conception Parish at Poteau, consisting of 150 families in LeFlore and Haskell counties. In this period he renovated a church in Stigler, St. Joseph, and built a new one, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, in Spiro. With the end of the Vietnam War, and the resultant flood of refugees to the United States, the parish sponsored an extended family of twenty-three members, helping them with housing and jobs until they were ready to enter American life on their own. In this project Fr. White was greatly helped by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who assigned four sisters to the Poteau parish. They continued there for nine years, largely supporting themselves by finding employment in the community as nurses and social workers.

On February 7, 1973, the Diocese of Tulsa was established as a separate and independent jurisdiction from that of Oklahoma City. Among the first actions of the new bishop, Bernard Ganter, was to create an office for the permanent diaconate, whose restoration in the Catholic Church has been authorized by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). Fr. White volunteered to work on this project, and Bishop Ganter appointed him as the first director. A small class of candidates was accepted in 1975, and the first deacon was ordained in November 1977. Fr. White continued as director until 1982, and again from 1984 to 1988.

In 1978 a new parish was established south of 81st Street in Tulsa, and Fr. White was appointed its founding pastor. Named for St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), the new congregation moved its meeting place several times before settling on the property of the former St. John Vianney School for Girls on 101st Street in Tulsa. In 1984 the parish dedicated its new church building, and four years later it completed a renovation of the nearly 55,000 square feet of space under roof in the former complex.

Reassigned in 1991, Fr. White spent a year editing the diaries of the first bishop of Oklahoma (1891-1924), which he published in 1994. He also continued research for a study of the Church's relationship with the Osage Nation, published in 1997. In 1992 and 1993 he was pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Fairfax, on the former Osage reservation. He served as master of ceremonies to Bishop Edward Slattery from 1994 to 1999.

In 1998 he was given charge of Sacred Heart Parish in Skiatook, on the boundary between Osage and Tulsa counties. In this post he renovated the parish's church and rectory.

At the age of 65, in 2004, he retired from the pastorate and was appointed archivist of the diocese. This required that he design an archives building on the chancery campus and set up a computer-based infrastructure to aid in filing and locating documents. In 2008 he was offered a post at St. Theresa of the Child of Jesus Parish in Palm Springs, California. He served as a priest in residence there for two years. In May 2011 he moved to a retirement facility near Los Angeles.

He returned to Tulsa in 2018, living first at the Franciscan Villa in Broken Arrow and more recently at the Cearu Medical Resort in Tulsa. In February 2022, Fr. White celebrated his 50th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood by offering Mass at the Church of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, which he founded in 1978.

A special word of thanks goes out to the staff of the Franciscan Villa, Cearu Medical Resort and Cura Hospice for their care of Fr. White.

In lieu of flowers, donations in his name can be made to the Priest Retirement Fund of the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma.

Fitzgerald Ivy Chapel, 918-585-1151