White won 410 games during his 27-year varsity career, retiring from coaching after the 1995-96 season and from teaching math at CCS in 1997. He died Tuesday at Bassett Hospital after a two year battle with prostate cancer.

According to his obituary, White began his basketball coaching career at CCS as the boys’ junior varsity coach in 1964 and moved to varsity in the fall of 1969. From then until his coaching retirement in 1996 he compiled a 410-155 record, winning 14 Center State Conference championships and five Section Three championships. In 1987, his team reached the Final Four of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association. In the early 1980s, Coach White held the first Cooperstown Redskins’ Basketball Day Camp at CCS. A success, the camp continues today at the Clark Sports Center.

White was a dignified and studious prescence on the Cooperstown bench, and did not enjoy the spotlight his teams’ success often put on him. When White retired, he simply asked for the public address announcer to say ``And coaching his final game at Cooperstown, head coach Dick White.’’

For many years, Coach White was a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. In 2000, he received the Clark Sports Center’s Patrick C. Fetterman Award and in 2002 he was inducted into the Section Three Hall of Fame.

Don Howard was the junior varsity coach for most of the time White was the varsity coach. He said the two would often discuss basketball and life on the bus trips to and from games. When White was honored with the Clark Sports Center’s annual Patrick C. Fetterman Award in 2000, Howard shed some light on White’s personality.

``Dick loved basketball and he loved kids,’’ said Howard, who retired from coaching track at CCS just last spring. ``Basketball was his vehicle to get to the kids.

``In his heart, Dick wanted every kid on the team to be able to play every minute,’’ Howard said. ``He did so much behind the scenes for kids that no one ever knew about. I coached with Dick for 31 years, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Dick and Don show. I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.’’

Tom Heitz, a longtime announcer at Cooperstown basketball games and a friend of White’s, said he remembered a time when White started a player who rarely ever saw playing time. When he inquired why the boy was starting, he was told it was because the player’s grandparents had traveled a long distance to see the game.

``That’s what Dick White was all about,’’ Heitz said.

Longtime CCS basketball fan Jane Johngren said White enjoyed the educational aspects of coaching above everything else.

White’s family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 at the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.

A service to celebrate the life of Richard A. White will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007 at Cooperstown United Methodist Church with the Rev. Betsy Jay, interim chaplain with Bassett Healthcare, Cooperstown, officiating. Immediately following the service, all attending are invited to share in a time of fellowship with Richard’s family in the Fellowship Hall below the church sanctuary.