 "Photo: Melanie Hardy")
Approaching the front of the classroom full of students, colleagues and friends in Memorial Hall, professor Patrick White shows off his "new set of wheels." Dressed for the occasion in a suit, White announces to the audience that his new motorized wheelchair was a gift, given by a fellow coworker at the university.
"This is my wheels. I haven't figured out how to do wheelies yet, but I will," he says. "I've also told my students I'm going to buy a jousting lance."
White, more commonly referred to as "Whitey," continues to thank the people for all their support. Sitting with hors d'oeuvres and glasses of wine, the room smiles back at White, erupting in laughter at his witticisms and jokes.
Last Friday, the English Department hosted a wine-and-cheese poetry and prose reading benefit to fundraise for White, in an attempt to alleviate his expenses brought on by an unexpected medical accident that occurred last April. While going into surgery to ease heart complications, White instead had a negative reaction to the blood thinner Heparin, which eventually led to an amputation of both of White's feet and half of his right hand.
Despite the trauma, White has remained in very high spirits, and all of his colleagues and fans, including Mayor Vance Funk, gathered Friday night for what Marcia Halio, a supplemental faculty member from the English department, announced as "Whitey's wing-ding." Referring to the department as "family," Halio, who delivered the event's welcoming remarks, says the benefit was a celebration of White - a friend of many years and a loveable professor, who has won the department's excellence in teaching award twice - a feat that, Halio says, not many people do.
"The idea is to be here to celebrate our friendship with Whitey and to celebrate our feeling of family," she says. "His laughter always brings a good feeling in the halls of the basement where we hang out."
Before the poetry prose readings, White tells his audience about one of his heroes - General Ulysses S. Grant, whose words have inspired White as of late, in light of his accident. Quoting Grant's phrase "lick 'em tomorrow though" spoken at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, White graciously thanks his coworkers, students and friends for their support through his whole ordeal.
"There are times when you think, 'Are you going to lick 'em tomorrow or not?' " White says. "It's fine to have your own attitude, but what we've noticed that's a marvelous thing to learn, especially in my old age, that people come out of the woodwork to help you 'lick 'em tomorrow.' "
White also announced that he and his fiancée, who he refers to as his "partner in greatness," finally got married on Oct. 29.
"We were going to get married on Spring Break, but they started sawing body parts off," White jokes.
While professors read a collection of poetry and prose, silent auctions and raffles were taking place next door. Students, along with professors and friends of White, joined in on the listening and raffling.
Sophomore Mike Lattanzi says he had White for Critical Reading and Writing (ENGL110) during the semester when White fell ill. Lattanzi volunteered to help out during the event, handing out programs to all who came by.
"I'm a physics major so I'm not very excited about humanities and English classes," Lattanzi says. "But he was really able to make us interested in the topics because he was so enthusiastic about it and he's really down-to-earth."
White has been back to work this semester teaching not only in Newark, but in Wilmington as well. He laughs and says he has to do something to "keep himself off the streets."
White, who was able to pull himself up to stand in front of a few guests, says he is also ahead in his therapy, and has begun to walk with a cane and a walker. He says standing and walking is harder with two artificial legs, as opposed to just one, because with no good leg to brace oneself, balancing is hard.
"Every chance I get I stand up. The other night I just pulled myself up standing at the sink at the kitchen and just stood and looked out the window for a few minutes just to stand up," he says. "It's a slow process - it's not something you can do fast."
White graciously says to his audience that he and his fiancée have been very humbled by those who have helped them through the past six months, and they have gotten to a point, with that help, to be able to look at White's situation in a positive light.
"You can only survive this kind of stuff with the attitude that we have," he says. "It's not a matter of one person, it's a matter of so many people helping you out."
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