David White; Newspaperman, Bureau Chief

Camarillo resident David White, a longtime newspaperman who served as Camarillo bureau chief for the Oxnard Press-Courier for 16 years, died Sunday. He was 91.

White was born Oct. 9, 1905, in Cambusnethan, Scotland. He married Ellen Monica in 1929, and they had three daughters. In 1953, he moved his family to Camarillo in hopes that the mild climate would help his daughter’s asthma. They traveled on the Queen Mary to New York and boarded a train for the trip to California.

He was active in civic affairs in Camarillo, including the Boys’ Club, and was a member of the Rotary Club. In 1979, he was named Man of the Year and, in 1989, the Pleasant Valley Historical Society named him a Camarillo Don, a local honor celebrating his devotion to the city. He put his intimate knowledge of Camarillo on paper in his book, “Greater Camarillo Then and Now.”

“He was a wonderful man, gentle and dignified,” said his daughter, Sheila Hogerheiden of Camarillo. “He was short--5 feet, 3 inches--but he always told us that where he came from, they didn’t judge a man from the neck down, but from the neck up, for his brains.”

White loved watching sports. He particularly enjoyed the championship golf tournaments that he covered as a journalist in St. Andrews, Scotland, where he met Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Bob Hope. But journalism was his first and most enduring passion.

“It consumed him,” Hogerheiden said. “He could be watching the news, listening to the police scanner, talking on the telephone and taking notes in shorthand, and I used to wonder how one person could manage to do so many things at once.”

In addition to Hogerheiden, White is survived by daughters Kathleen Smalley of Santa Maria and Evelyn Swindle of Camarillo; sister Jean Holsopple of Tampa, Fla.; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. His wife preceded him in death.

Visitation will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Sunday in the Chapel of the Islands, Conejo Mountain Memorial Park in Camarillo. A service will be held at 1 p.m. with Will Gerry officiating. Burial will follow.

Donations may be made to Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Assn., the Camarillo Health Care District or the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, 650 W. 168th St., New York, N.Y. 10032.

Arrangements are under the direction of Conejo Mountain Memorial Park and Funeral Home in Camarillo.