Gov. White Will Be Missed (Jeff Hankins commentary)

Frank White was a former governor, but for the last 20 years he made his mark on Arkansas by contributing countless hours — not to mention dozens of stories and jokes — to fund-raising efforts of nonprofit organizations throughout the state.

His trademark “Hi! I’m Frank White” greeting brought smiles to faces. His gubernatorial races against Bill Clinton in the ’80s were not only effective in shaping a future U.S. president, but also downright entertaining political drama.

White’s victory over Clinton in 1980 was the beginning of the turnaround of the future president’s political career. It was an unintended wakeup call for Clinton.

When seven Arkansas governors gathered in Little Rock last summer, Clinton thanked White and said: “I probably owe him more than anyone else because if he hadn’t beaten me, I probably would have been too bullheaded and arrogant to ever get elected president.”

At his death at age 69, White was serving Gov. Mike Huckabee and the state as commissioner of the Arkansas Bank Department.

I remember chastising him for taking the post. He had just retired from a successful career with First Commercial Corp. in Little Rock after the sale to Regions Financial Corp. was announced, and I told him he just needed to enjoy life and spend more time on the river.

We always had a good time talking about politics. His loyalty to the Republican Party was clear, but privately he was a straight shooter with me on issues and politicians of all varieties.

It took me about a year of getting to know White well in the mid-’90s to confess some things I wrote about him while I was editor of the Pine Bluff High School newspaper. I had joined most other newspapers in Arkansas with my criticism of his handling of the infamous creation science law.

His one term as governor wasn’t particularly remarkable, but he did lower vehicle registration fees that Clinton had raised, promoted critical vocational education and was pro-business in general. It was that creation-science debacle that led to dozens of editorial cartoons by the Arkansas Gazette’s George Fisher panning White holding a peeled banana.

As time passed, White’s legacy as governor faded, but the 1992 presidential election put him back into the spotlight because journalists wanted to talk to the guy who handed Clinton a rare political defeat. He did his best to serve the GOP with the anti-Clinton gospel, but to no avail.

While he remained active in GOP politics behind the scenes, his popularity grew through his contributions to the nonprofits community.

White was always willing to help sell tables to fund-raising dinners or serve as master of ceremonies for events. He was a perennial “roaster” and “roastee,” and all the while his wonderful wife, Gay, was by his side, enduring the laughs that were sometimes at her expense.

The bitterness of politics in the ’80s faded, and White settled into his role as a one-of-a-kind Arkansas personality who left many a crowd in tears of laughter — even when it was your fifth time to hear the Fort Chaffee story.

I’m writing this on the night of May 21 just a couple hours after learning of his death. Earlier in the day at the UALR Economic Forecast Conference, former banker and Baldor Electric Co. executive Robert Qualls and I told the audience how White’s introduction of Qualls before a speech a few years ago actually exceeded the length of the speech. The crowd agreed with a big laugh that it wasn’t surprising.

I’m glad for all of us who were in the room that we enjoyed a good laugh thanks to Frank White.