UNITED STATES
Providence Journal
By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer
Jacqueline Tempera
Journal Staff Writer
Posted Apr. 30, 2016
In December 1966, the Charleston Daily Mail noted the ordination of Howard W. White Jr. as an Episcopal priest in West Virginia.
White, like all other Episcopal ordinates, vowed to follow the teachings of Christ and be “a wholesome example” to his people.
White’s first assignment, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Martinsburg, West Virginia, lasted less than a year. He moved, and moved again, from parishes to elite boarding schools, from prep schools to churches, from state to state and within states. New Hampshire. Rhode Island. Virginia. North Carolina. Pennsylvania.
Along the way, White’s accusers say, he left trail of wrecked and broken lives. The allegations of sexual abuse span decades and distance.
A godson. A boy who says he lived with White in a rectory and fled to the streets. A teenage parishioner who says White molested her at the same church. A former St. George’s School student. All between 10 and 15 years old. Two of whom have recently stepped forward in North Carolina.
In 1974, St. George’s in Middletown quietly fired the Rev.”Howdy” White after he admitted sexual misconduct, but did not report him to authorities despite a mandatory reporting law.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.