Byron White

Who was Byron White?

Byron Raymond "Whizzer" White won fame both as a football halfback and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Appointed to the court by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, he retired in 1993, being the twelfth longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history. He was married to Marion Lloyd Stearns in 1946 and the father of two children, Charles Byron White and Nancy Pitkin White.

White was born in Fort Collins, Colorado. He was raised in the nearby town of Wellington, Colorado, where he obtained his high school diploma in 1930. He made a point of returning to Wellington on an annual basis for his high school reunions up until 1999 when his physical health worsened significantly. He died in Denver at the age of 84 from complications of pneumonia. He was the first and only Supreme Court Justice from the state of Colorado.