Donald J. White, a prominent Long Island lawyer, village justice of Garden City (1981-97), New York State Magistrate and a past president of the Nassau County Bar Association (1990-91), died Jan. 8, 2008 in Ormond Beach, FL. He was 84 and resided in Pt. Lookout and Daytona Beach Shores, FL.

He was the son of second-generation Irish immigrants born in the Ridgewood section of Brooklyn on April 12, 1923. His father, John White was a New York City Police Department Sergeant.

Like most of his age group, he was greatly influenced by the Great Depression. White attended PS 68 and was nurtured amid the get-up-and-go atmosphere of the Myrtle Avenue thoroughfare in the largely German neighborhood. He attended Villanova University and graduated from St. Johns University with a Juris Doctorate in 1947 on the GI Bill.

A member of the greatest generation, White figured that he could join the US Coast Guard just as WWII started and avoid serious conflict. Instead he served in four theaters - including the North Atlantic, N. Africa and Pacific on convoy patrol aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Bibb - and took part in the last battle of World War II the invasion of Okinawa. White was a radio technician and described surviving near-miss dive-bomber Kamakazi attacks and weathering a typhoon in Buckner Bay, Okinawa by rolling away a stone entry of a burial tomb and settling in for the storm.

Donald White will be remembered for always having a plane ticket in his back pocket and his quick wry sense of humor. An energetic man with a strong moral compass he was an advocate for the disadvantaged and unfailingly fair-minded.

Judge White was an early adaptor of computer technology especially as it related to law office management and brought his zeal for technological progress and modernization to the Nassau County court system and the Nassau County Bar Association.

He was a partner with White and Walsh in Jamaica Plains 1950-61, partner White, Walsh, McPhillips and O'Callahanin Mineola 1972-89, Law Offices of Donald J. White, Mineola, NY 1990-98, Acting Village Justice of Garden City 1981-85, Village Justice of Garden City 1985-97, Nassau County Judicial Hearing Officer for the Traffic and Parking Violations Agency - 2000 - present 50-year member of the Hempstead Golf Club, President of the Italian American Society of Garden City.

He was the father of six children and grandfather of 12. Judge White leaves behind his wife of 53 years Doris Chamberlain White, his daughter Mary White of Huntington Station, son Peter of Point Lookout, daughter Megan Shake of Holly Hill, FL, son Paul of Dahlonega, GA, daughter Maureen Rodriguez of Pt. Lookout, and daughter Michele Stapleton of Washington Township, NJ. His sister Gloria White predeceased him.

The cause was complications from pneumonia, said his son, Peter, a partner with the law firm Nixon Peabody.

A public viewing and memorial was held at Fairchild Sons Funeral Home, Garden City, with funeral services planned at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Pt. Lookout on Jan. 14.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the WE CARE Fund, the charitable arm of the Nassau County Bar Association.