A graduate of Seminole High School, White received his B.S. and M.D. degrees from the University of Oklahoma. Following residency, he served in the U.S. Navy in Da Nang, Vietnam, and at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He completed a fellowship in cardiology at the OU Health Sciences Center and entered private practice, specializing in diagnostic and interventional cardiology. He attended one of the first balloon angioplasty training courses in Switzerland and subsequently performed the first procedure in Oklahoma. White co-founded the American Society of Cardiovascular Interventionalists and Oklahoma Cardiovascular Associates, the state’s largest cardiovascular physician group serving patients in 45 satellite clinics statewide. In 2002, he co-founded the Oklahoma Heart Hospital, one of the nation’s first all-digital hospitals. White served two terms on the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma and as chairman three years. He began his second, nine-year term as a State Regent for Higher Education in 2012, having received appointments from Governors David Boren, George Nigh, Brad Henry, and Mary Fallin. He served on the board of directors of Oklahoma Gas and Electric, was a member of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and a trustee for the University of Oklahoma Foundation, Oklahoma Zoological Society, and Westminster Day School.