Noel White

Celebration of Life Through Story Noel White

Noel White was born in Berea, Kentucky to parents who were in the pastoral ministry. His mother and father died within five months of each other, inspiring him to adopt the story of the butterfly as his symbol for life. He is a graduate of Danville High School, Union College, Wesley Theological Seminary, and Lexington Theological Seminary with a Doctor of Ministry degree. Married to his college sweetheart, Betty Jane, they have two adult children, Mary Jane White and John Noel (Lori) White, with three grandchildren Jenna, Laurel and Daniel. Dr. White has been a YMCA professional in Kettering Ohio; he served United Methodist Churches in Kentucky for 21 years; was senior pastor at Shiloh Church in Dayton, Ohio for 5 years, where the service was televised in Southwestern Ohio and in Eastern Kentucky; and he served as President of Penney Retirement Community in Florida for 12 years. After retirement, for eight years he served a small membership church in San Mateo, Florida. Since then, he and Betty Jane have returned back home to their roots in Kentucky. Since childhood he has been interested in storytelling, believing that is the key to effective public speaking, teaching and preaching. He never ceases to be amazed at the ten thousand people who attend the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee in October of each year. He believes that every person's life is a story that needs to be told, and finds this technique to be very effective in funerals, memorial services and celebrations of life. This is the reason he has written this book, and he hopes the techniques mentioned here will be used by others to enable services of remembrance to be more effective and deeply remembered.