Dan White is the third recipient of the Joseph R. Holland Lifetime Achievement Award, and is most deserving. Dan was a proud member of Nyack High School’s championship basketball and tennis teams. The basketball team was three points shy of being undefeated in Rockland County and Dan was undefeated in his senior year in tennis at the first doubles slot.
After graduating from Nyack High School, Dan enrolled at Rutgers University as an English major. Dan earned his varsity letter at Rutgers on the tennis team, competing in the third doubles position. During his stay at Rutgers, Dan was the head manager of the basketball team and the sports editor of the daily college newspaper in his senior year.
Upon completing his degree at Rutgers, He served his country in the Army Signal Corps, attaining the rank of captain. Dan then left the service and returned to his hometown of Nyack, where he embarked upon a business career. Dan worked for the Rockland Refrigeration Company, an air conditioning and refrigeration contractor with a retail appliance store, and served as the president of that company for many years. Always one to give back to his community, Dan was a member of the Rotary Club of Nyack for 25 years, chairing several charity projects. For 26 years, Dan was on the Board of Trustees of the Nyack Free Library, serving five terms as president and 15 years as treasurer.
The main reason Dan is being honored is for his many years of dedication and hard work to the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame. He became a member of the executive committee in 1992, and in his first year, Dan successfully sponsored his first candidate. Four years later, another of his prospective candidates was selected for induction into the Hall of Fame. Since 1996 13 more inductees sponsored by Dan were chosen by the executive committee for induction into the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame. He was very meticulous in his research for the pertinent facts of an athlete, primarily using the microfilm of The Journal News in the Nyack Library.
Beginning in 1995 Dan became heavily involved with the sale of tickets for the annual dinner to honor the inductees and continued to do so for 11 years. Along with coordinating ticket sales, Dan ran six successful dinners, three of which averaged an attendance of 300 people. Dan has served on the selection committee for seven years and has sold advertising in the program for many years.
In 2000 Dan was asked by Chairman Peter Scheibner to be the master of ceremonies for the dinner, a duty he performed admirably for six years. Dan still is an active member of the executive committee of the Hall of Fame. He resides in his hometown of Nyack with his wife Lila. The Whites have two daughters, Pam and Jennifer.