First Lieutenant Harold Clarence White had just completed a cross-state exhibition flight of Ohio in support of the Fourth Liberty Loan drive when he was struck with influenza. His mother immediately set out for Dayton from Seattle, but Harold died of pneumonia and complications from the flu on October 16, 1918, before she arrived. Harold was stationed at Wilbur Wright Field and had recently graduated from the school of military aeronautics at Berkeley, California. He was looking forward to continuing his service at Wright Field as an instructor and test pilot with the 20th Aero Squadron. He is buried at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_white)
A native of Seattle, Harold was the youngest of three children born to Clarence Little White and his wife, Etta Belle Whitworth. Harold was a 1916 graduate of Broadway High School where he was a standout athlete. At the time of his enlistment Harold was a freshman at the UW studying business administration. A pledge of Phi Gamma Delta, Harold was also yell leader for the class of 1920. Harold waited three weeks after the declaration of war – until his 21st birthday – to enlist. His grandfather, Reverend George Frederick Whitworth twice served as President of the University of Washington – from 1866-1867 and again from 1874-1876 – and founded Whitworth University.