Over the past 56 years White has held numerous leadership positions and taught more than 4,000 engineering students. His professional service extends across several organizations. Included in numerous Who’s Who listings, ranker.com ranks him the seventh “most famous” industrial engineer. Although he retired from full-time teaching in 2019, he continues to teach an online advanced engineering economics course for the University of Arkansas.
 

The North Central Association of Colleges and Universities called the decade of White’s leadership at the University of Arkansas transformational, noting significant improvements occurred in all dimensions of the university. During his six-year service as Georgia Tech’s engineering dean, the college advanced from being ranked 11th to being ranked 3rd among graduate engineering programs by U.S. News & World Report.
 
White’s leadership experience includes membership on boards of directors for Eastman Chemical Company, J. B. Hunt Transport Services, Logility, Motorola, Motorola Solutions, Russell Corporation, and National Collegiate Athletic Association, as well as leading the American Association of Engineering Societies, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, National GEM Consortium, The Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Council of Presidents of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, and Southeastern Conference, among others. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, White’s bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees are from the University of Arkansas, Virginia Tech, and The Ohio State University, respectively. He holds honorary doctorates from George Washington University and Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven in Belgium.