La Jolla mainstay Leo White, 104 and known for his concern for others, died Jan 1 at home. He is survived by all seven of children.
After 66 years in La Jolla, Leo White died Jan 1 at 104.
“He lasted until 2025,” said Suzy Foster, one of his seven children and a Santee resident. “He had a good run.”
White is also survived by 16 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.
For Leo’s 104th birthday in 2024, all his seven children and their spouses celebrated him at The Shores restaurant.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 22, 1920, White became a US Navy pilot, marrying Marjorie Brack in 1943 while stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas.
After World War II, White and his family returned to St. Paul where Leo began his 45-year career as a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch.
Marjorie died of acute leukemia in 1956, leaving White with four children.
He married Mary Jo Donnan in 1958 and transferred to the La Jolla Merrill Lynch office. Now with three more children, the White family lived in Bird Rock until Mary Jo’s death from early-onset Alzheimer’s in 2004.
White reunited with his high school sweetheart, Mary Scallon Gerber, and they married when both were 84. They enjoyed years of traveling and commuting between their homes in La Jolla and Walnut Creek. Mary died in 2009.
White remained in La Jolla, playing tennis until he was 92 at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club where he also golfed with friends.
On his 100th birthday, White counted honesty and kindness among reasons for his longevity.
Leo White and son Bill White at Harry’s Coffee Shop.
Despite surviving so much loss and tragedy, White “really focused on the wonderful things,” Foster said, adding he enjoyed his daily attendance at All Hallows Catholic Church and his visits to his son Bill White’s The Ascot Shop in The Village.
“He was so invested in meeting people,” Foster said. “Dad never knew a stranger; it was just a friend he hadn’t met.”
At the beach club and everywhere else, White would befriend servers and staff members.
“Everybody would come over and talk to him,” Foster said. “He was always very concerned about how everyone else was doing.”
Nobody was “more giving than my dad,” she said. “He was never concerned about himself.”
After two broken hips in 2023, Foster recalled how White was “amazingly strong” and more motivated and energetic during therapy than his rehab roommates who were 20 to 30 years younger.
“It was really inspiring,” she said. “There’s quite the legacy”
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Garden of Innocence San Diego.
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