BATH – On April 13, 2022, Ernest “Bud” White, 99, of Brunswick, died after a brief illness. Although he didn’t quite reach “triple digits” as he would say, he was in his 100th year. Born in Gardiner on July 2, 1922, the son of Ernest E. White, Sr. and Carol Olga (Williams) Fowles White, he was a 1940 graduate of Coney High School.

After high school at the Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding Corp. in South Portland, he learned the welding trade and worked as a welder on the Liberty Ships in Mobile, Ala., before enlisting in the Army in April 1943. The Army sent him to several welding schools before being assigned to the 531st Combat Engineers, 1st Amphibious Brigade out of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and was shipped out to Truro, England. (His unit later became the 3053rd Engineer Combat Battalion and during the war, was part of four major invasions: North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Normandy.) It was on D-Day, June 6, 1944, that Bud saw his first combat experience on Utah Beach. As a veteran, he was a lifetime member of the VFW Post 2197, Topsham, Maine.

After the war, he met and married Sarah Jane Morrell on March 11, 1948, in Gardiner one day after Jane’s 20th birthday during a winter storm – and were together for 74 years. During their married life, Bud worked at many trades, machinist at Pratt & Whitney, barber, bridge construction and welder. A die-hard Boston Red Sox fan, he wore the cap to prove it at the beach every summer! His many interests included SCUBA diving where he once discovered, in the mud, an intact red port globe from a 19th century ship wreck. Electrifying it, the globe hung in the house stairway. Bud also took a great interest in exercise and weight-lifting to keep in shape well into his nineties. As a Red Cross swimming instructor, he would take his young daughter and friends to the lake for swimming lessons so that they could earn their swimming certificates. Once the grandsons arrived, “Pa” found projects to interest both boys from bike riding to building a toolbox. Every Christmas until his eyesight dimmed, Bud built wooden toys to donate to Brunswick’s Santa Claus Fund.

Bud was predeceased by his parents; his sisters Irma (Fowles) Clark and Nona (Fowles) Dunn; nieces Joan (Hasting) Shailer, Carol Clark McLeod, nephew Gerald “Jerry” Clark, Jr.; great-niece Grace Shailer and several great-nephews.

Bud will be remembered with love by his wife, Jane; his daughter, Sheri Jane Testa and her husband Andy of Danbury, Conn.; his grandson Matthew James Knight and his wife Brooke of Larchmont, N.Y.; his grandson Andrew A. Testa III and his wife Jasmine of Bronx, N.Y.; and his great-granddaughters Eden, Reese, and Clementine and his great-grandson River. He is also survived by nieces Sigrid Arnold and Cheryl Martin-Hunt and her husband Eric; nephew Gene Clark and his wife Yolanda; great-nephews Robert Shailer III and Jon Shailer; many great nieces and nephews; and so many friends.

The family would like to especially thank Samuel Hughes for the many hours he spent with Bud, interviewing him for his WWII experiences. The project not only earned Sam his Eagle Scout rank but has provided the family with a lasting memory of Bud’s life for which we are eternally grateful.

Burial services will be at the convenience of the family at The Maine Veterans Cemetery. Arrangements are in the care of The Brackett Funeral Home, 29 Federal St, Brunswick, Maine, where memories, condolences and photos may be shared with the family on the obituary page of their website at http://www.brackettfh.com.



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