Lloyd "Sodie" White's 36-year career as a high school coach, teacher and administrator was never about wins and losses.
The longtime Carver football and basketball coach regularly experienced victory, but his legacy went beyond the field of play.
"He had his share of wins because he was a good coach, but winning was not his No. 1 priority," said Don Coleman, an assistant football coach on White's staff from 1959 to 1970. "The athlete was his No. 1 priority."
White died June 26 at Setter Hospital in Vallejo, Calif., after a bout of pneumonia. He was 96.
Born in Mississippi in 1913, White took his first teaching job at Douglass High School in 1941. He was there for one year before moving to the Vocational School at Carrollton and Lafayette avenues, which later became Carver Vocational High School. He retired from Carver in 1977.
"He was an instrumental figure in athletics in Baltimore," said Bob Wade, coordinator of athletics for Baltimore City Public Schools.
White's daughter and only child, Michelle Snooky ReedÃÂÃÂWhite Johnson, recalled walking around Baltimore with her father and hearing of his impact on the community.
"I would be walking in the streets of Baltimore with him and someone would stop us and say, 'Coach White, do you remember me?'" Johnson said. "And then that person would take me aside and tell me that my father was a great man and he helped the Baltimore community so much."
Mr. Coleman remembered White inviting players who didn't have much spending money to his house to do chores.
"They would cut grass or things so that he could put some money in their pocket without just giving it to them," Coleman said.
White earned a bachelor's degree from Talladega College in Alabama and then a master's from the Teachers University at Columbia in New York City in 1955.
In his 22 years of coaching at Carver, White won a state championship in basketball in 1959 and the basketball and football titles in 1973.
"He impressed me because I very seldom saw him raise his voice," said Emmanuel Butler, who replaced White as Carver's football coach.
Added Coleman: "He was respected by the coaches, he was highly respected by his athletes that he coached, and all of us in the profession took our hats off to Sodie White as a teacher and a mentor."
Mr. White is survived by his daughter; his grandchildren, Tristan Johnson and Tamara Johnson-Drake; and his great-granddaughter, Shiloh A'Maya Lee Drake. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. July 31 at Union Baptist Church on Druid Hill Avenue.