William Lee White, Vice-President and General Manager of the Yosemite Valley Railroad, was born in Bevier, Macon County, Missouri, December 8, 1886. When he was seven the family moved to Rock Island, Illinois. He started high school there, finished in Chicago. Mr. White early took to railroading, his life career. He began with the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, continuing from 1902 to 1905; and was with the C. R. L & P. from 1905 to 1907.

Railroad work was the magnet that drew him west. He went to Bozeman, Montana, where he was with the Northern Pacific from 1907 to 1909. Going to Salt Lake City, he was with the Union Pacific until 1913. Coming on to the Pacific Coast, he worked for the Southern Pacific at San Francisco in 1913 and 1914. His next railroading was with the Sierra Railway at Jamestown in 1914 and 1915. Returning to Salt Lake, he was with the Salt Lake and Utah from 1915 to 1920.

Mr. White came to Merced in 1920 as General Manager, and in 1921 became Vice-president and General Manager of the Yosemite Valley Railroad, which had been opened in 1907. This company, financed largely by San Francisco capital, built 78 miles of track from Merced to 'El Portal, near the entrance to Yosemite National Park, opening Yosemite Valley for the first time as an all-year scenic attraction. Previously Yosemite had not been accessable in winter.

Mr. White has directed the affairs of the railroad, one of the outstanding Short Lines in the United States, continuously from 1920 down to the present with exception of the period between 1933 and 1935 when he lived in Washington, D. C, as President of the American Short Line Railroad Association.

Mr. White married Miss Elsie Janet Gallacher at Salt Lake in 1912. There are two children: William G. White, who, following railroading like his father, is Supervisor of Claims Prevention with the Delaware and Lackawanna Western, with ms home and headquarters at Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was bom in San Francisco in 1913. Elsie Lee White, the daughter, was born in Sonora in 1914, and is now Mrs. W. W. Miles of Merced.

From 1917 to 1919 Mr. White was Captain of the Utah National Guard First Cavalry, which afterward became the 145 Field Artillery. He is a Past Exalted Ruler of the Merced Lodge of Elks, a Mason, Past President Merced Rotary and Legionnaire.