Thomas Patrick White died April 18, 2002, on Vashon Island of a heart attack. He was 55 years old.

Mr. White attended St. Paul’s Riverside Elementary School and was selected the most valuable player in the 1962 Catholic grade school league basketball tournament. He obtained Eagle Scout rank at his school troop, as well.

He then attended Gordon Military Academy in Barnesville, Ga., and Bishop Kenny High School before graduating from Robert E. Lee High School in 1966.

After graduation, he moved to Marina Del Rey, Calif., where he worked making and testing surfboards.

In the early 1970s he moved to New York City and managed the famous Cheetah nightclub before returning to the area and taking a position as a bartender at the Ponte Vedra Surf Club where he rose to general manager within three months. He then served as general manager of Le Chateau Restaurant from 1978 to 1980.

In 1980, he took a position as a restaurant supply sales representative for Edward Don & Company and was the company’s number one salesman in the state of Florida after his second year in a new territory.

In 1984, he left Edward Don to found St. Johns Restaurant Supply with two other salesmen; the business was acquired by Kingston Restaurant Supply of Long Island, New York, in 1990.

He then founded Barsco Restaurant Supply, which he operated in Jacksonville Beach until closing it in 1999 due to ill health.

Mr. White moved to Vashon Island in 2000 where he used his culinary skills to triple the revenues at the Saint John Vianney parish’s annual scholarship fund-raiser with his gumbos and other Southern fare. He also cooked as a volunteer at The Nativity House, a homeless shelter for men in Tacoma.

In his three decades as a restaurant equipment dealer, he was as much a consultant as a salesman and was instrumental in developing the themes and menus of many of the most successful restaurants in Jacksonville Beach. He will be long remembered for his intense wit, open generosity, lively personality and noble spirit.

Survivors include four children: Nora Michelle White of Brooklyn, New York, James Marlow White of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., Darlie Elise White and T. Patrick White of Saint Augustine. Fla, and two brothers, James M. White of Vero Beach, Fla., and Marlow V. White of Tallahassee, and three sisters, Lillian W. Shagrin of Seattle, Maureen W. Enderlin of Warren, N.Y, and Sheila W. Moore of Vashon Island, numerous nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, and many devoted friends who loved him dearly.

A Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday, April 26, at St. John Vianney. His ashes will be interred in a family plot in Pensacola, Florida.

Murray Wrig