When people who knew him say that Glenn D. White was a “Renaissance individual,” they are remembering a brilliant and affable man whose careers variously included work as a physicist, sound engineer, inventor, university educator, wine purveyor, and pipe organ repairman.
The former School of Music faculty member was in a class all his own, a physicist passionate about music who taught acoustics, laboratory instrumentation, recording technology, and research methods at the School of Music from 1969 through 1980. He taught about the ways in which physical acoustics of concert halls impact performers and their instruments and about the connection between musicians’ physical production of sound and the physics underlying listeners’ perception and response to their performances.
Along with his influence on his students and colleagues at the UW, White made his mark beyond the university. Seattle author Peter Blecha, in an article about White on the HistoryLink website, attempted to describe a remarkable man defying easy categorization: “The sheer range of the multilingual Mensa International member’s myriad endeavors over the decades is mind boggling. A listing would include organ repairman, physicist, mathematician, Boeing guided-missile engineer and data analyst, experimental-music organization trustee, pipe organ and harpsichord designer/builder, audio engineer, radio station technician, university lecturer, Moog synthesizer instructor, cofounder of the Enological Society of the Pacific Northwest, sound-system designer, professional acoustician, lexicographer—and lastly, in his later years, a Vespa-riding tech applications engineer.”
White made a lasting impression on most who knew him, including one of his former UW students, Doug Solowan, who recently established a new faculty endowment in the School of Music in honor of White, who died in 2014. Solowan’s gift will create the Glenn D. White Endowed Professorship in Music, an enduring tribute to a singular individual as well as a permanent source of funding to support faculty whose areas of interest and expertise incorporate mathematics, physics, and/or engineering with the field of music. Holders of the professorship may include current faculty members, individuals being recruited for faculty positions, or visiting faculty members, including artists in residence.
“We are thrilled that Doug Solowan has created this professorship in honor of Glenn White,” says School of Music Acting Director Joël- François Durand. “It will be of tremendous help in our efforts to expand our research and teaching in areas exploring the intersections of music, mathematics, physics, and engineering. We are grateful for this generous support from Doug Solowan, and we are delighted that Glenn’s legacy will live on here at the School of Music.”
Glenn White grew up on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill and attended the University of Washington, graduating in 1955 with a degree in Physics. He already knew when he entered college that he was interested in acoustics. His UW advisor, a Professor Kenworth, was an acoustician, and White specifically chose the UW in order to study with Kenworth. After graduation, he was hired by the Boeing Company and worked there for eight years, ultimately supervising instrumentation at Boeing Environmental Test Laboratories.
He subsequently became the first sound engineer at the Seattle Center, where one of his fondest memories was doing sound for the Beatles when they performed at the Center in 1964. From the Center, he was hired by the UW School of Music, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the Systematic Musicology program as well as developing design for and installation of sound systems for university buildings, including Meany Hall.
White also collaborated with several architects on acoustical design in other area venues, including Seattle’s Fifth Avenue Theater, Saint Mark’s Cathedral, and Tacoma’s Rialto Theater. Glenn’s love of music and passion for instrumentation led him into recording interests. He recorded the Seattle Youth Symphony concerts for more than 20 years and many professional musicians benefited from his expertise. His passion for organs grew into an initial partnership in Olympic Organ Builders with David Dahl, Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University and later with James Ludden. He is responsible for designing and installing nineteen organs in the Pacific Northwest— including one suspended in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.
For the last 16 years of his career White was a field applications engineer working for companies including DLI Enginering on Bainbridge Island. He also wrote The Audio Dictionary (UW Press); its third edition was co-authored with former longtime School of Music audio technician Gary J. Louie. In creating the professorship in White’s name, Solowan says, “I want to honor Glenn and thank the School of Music for this unlikely hire – bringing the hard sciences into the arts was visionary.”
Sources:
Historylink Essay: White, Glenn Dresie (1933-2014), by Peter Blecha
Seattle Times obituary: Glenn D. White
Tape Op: Interview with Glenn White, by Erik 4A