An individual’s life can be compared to a novel, with each page filled with moments expressed in vivid detail from the minute to the substantial. And if one is fortunate, that story will span decades, or “chapters,” filled with moments of pride, joy, perseverance and immense satisfaction.
That is how to best describe the story of St. Joseph’s University, New York alumna Mary Kruse White ’51.
Now 97 years old and living in Longmont, Colorado, White attended St. Joseph’s University (then-St. Joseph’s College for Women) in the late 1940s, at a time when receiving a college education was not the expectation for young women.
A lifelong learner, White cherished the opportunity to continue her education after high school. With the support of her family and local parish, which helped pay her way through St. Joseph’s, she pursued a degree in speech communication.
Mary K. White’s Days at St. Joseph’s
Long before the days of the internet, social media and televisions in every room, White kept herself plenty busy on and off SJNY’s campus in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
Mary Kruse White ’51, her first year at SJNY.
She chaired an occasion known as the “Student Tea,” bringing together the entire student body for an event “as elegant as a group of young ladies in their early twenties could make it,” White stated. She also produced, directed, performed and narrated a special assembly, one that was well received by students and professors alike.
Off campus, White worked as a tour guide for NBC studios, taking guests from around the country behind the scenes of radio programs. “A few sailors wanted me to ‘show them around New York City,’” White detailed in her self-published diary.
“They were young boys from the Midwest, unusually polite. I called a few of my college friends and they took the subway into the city and we toured some highlights before the sailors returned to their ship in New York harbor.”
Those college friends would become lifelong friends, sharing adventures in the city, attending Broadway shows, enjoying lunches together and, eventually, standing beside White as bridesmaids at her wedding. “It was a carefree time,” White recalled.
And yet, her focus on education remained front and center. By her senior year, White was a student teacher at a high school close by her home in Queens.
“Even though I was only a few years older than my high school seniors, I loved those students,” she said.
Mary Kruse White’s graduation photo.
Following in White’s footsteps along a similar path was her younger sister Margaret “Peggy” Kruse Mooney ’55 as a fellow alumna of St. Joseph’s. To this day, the sisters remain in separable in their ambition, love for one another and a fondness for inspiring others — values reinforced by SJNY.
A sibling rivalry in the friendliest of terms, Mary and Peggy Kruse reflect a legacy of success and distinction that transcends generations at the University.
A Life Thereafter
After graduating from St. Joseph’s with a degree in speech communication development, White would go on to become a schoolteacher in Brooklyn before eventually moving to Upstate New York with her husband to start a family.
Even while raising four children, White never lost her desire to learn and grow academically. It was that love of education, fostered from a young age and nurtured at St. Joseph’s, that saw White return to school to receive a master’s degree in education and speech therapy.
For the next 20 years, White served as a traveling speech therapist in Greene County, New York, working with children with a wide range of needs. She eventually became chairperson for the district’s students who required individualized education programs.
According to White’s son Thomas White, his mother’s life of education and advocacy is one she owes to her time at St. Joseph’s.
“Anytime my mother was she given the opportunity; she would say that her St. Joe’s experience got her where she was and helped her have a career as a woman and working mother with four kids. She really credits her time there and the opportunity to go to college in 1947,” Thomas White said.
Excellence Passed Down
White worked as traveling speech therapist, serving as an educator and advocate for children with special needs.
That investment in one’s education and success was something Thomas says his parents passed down to him and his siblings as well.
“We were all good students. My mother made sure of that,” Thomas continued. “We didn’t take education lightly and my parents would remind us of our privilege to be in a decent school district with dedicated teachers.”
He described both his parents as “professional volunteers,” both being highly involved with committees, coaching and running fundraisers. According to Thomas White, seeing the dedication his parents put into his own education inspired him to achieve academic success in his own right.
To this day, even from an assisted living community in Colorado, Mary Kruse White remains that same energetic, enthusiastic and avid learner she has been her entire life, immediately joining the community’s residence committee.
And just as White continues to thank St. Joseph’s for all it has contributed to her life, the institution does the same, recognizing her as a shining example of the profound excellence fortified within its community. One can only hope that White’s chapter at SJNY is one she would be happy to read once more, page by page.
