DAN SCOTT WHITE
Our youngest child, Dan arrived fourteen months after his oldest sister, Anne, prayed for a brother. He was born amiable and is still a laid-back young man with many friends in spite of being somewhat shy. Dan’s many talents include an unusual ability to match finite patterns. As a preschooler, he put together 500 piece jigsaw puzzles by looking at, not the colors or the pictures, but the backs of pieces, placing them zip, zip, zip, quickly.
Dan spent his fourteenth summer in Sweden and his fifteenth in northern Peru, helping build a native church. When he flew back from Sweden, he landed at JFK in New York during an air traffic controllers strike and was stuck at that airport for four days. That's why he knows JFK Airport like his own back yard. He finally got a seat on a plane through Canada and back to us in Northern Il., to our great relief.
Dan graduated from Columbia University in Chicago, then worked as a Sound Engineer for Chicago's last real-time recording studio. He did carpentry in building the studio's sound rooms. One summer at this studio, he spent six weeks as assistant Sound Engineer for Bob Dylan.
Then Dan headed west and worked in building construction (heating and air conditioning) then drove an eighteen-wheeler for several years. He parked double-long trucks as precisely as he'd worked jig-saw puzzles in younger years. Dan’s good at everything he tries, but especially gifted as a writer and photographer. He creates wonderful artwork on his scanner, too.
His big solo adventure, Dan spent two months bicycling alone from Seattle to Fairbanks and on to Anchorage, Alaska, then returned to Seattle, journaling the entire trip. He met cyclists from around the world who have remained as e-mail friends. In Fairbanks, Dan rented a car and drove as far as a road went toward the north pole, before bicycling to Anchorage and taking a ferry home.
Dan is learning Chinese with the help of Diane, a lovely friend from Taiwan whom he met through the internet. Because Dan recognizes patterns so easily, we expect he'll do really well with Chinese script.
He's also teaching Chinese children English in Tapei, Taiwan. Diane has helped him adjust to a new culture in hundreds of ways.