From Dunce to Director: Brad White Makes Estate Gift to the School that “Saved My Life”

Brad White ’77 says that his 11 years at Thayer Academy are the reason he was able to progress from a poor student with undiagnosed attention deficit disorder (ADD) to a successful businessman who took the Sharper Image company public, founded a high-end pet products company, and now pursues his love of boating by operating a burial at sea service that has 88 boats in 73 ports on both coasts of the U.S. In gratitude, he makes annual gifts, participates in career seminars at Thayer, and has recently added a bequest to his estate plan and become a member of the Southworth Society for those making legacy gifts.

“My wife Julie-Anne and I were reviewing our estate plan and doing some work on our trust, and I just had to include Thayer,” Brad says. “It was time to recognize who and what got me off the lazy launch pad of life in grade school, and I am forever grateful for that. And everybody else who learned and trained and became an individual at the Academy should be grateful as well.”

Brad in particular acknowledged the late Doris Tilden, who tutored him for eight years—and taught at Thayer for 20 years and was also a foster parent for 36 babies.

“She probably saved my life,” Brad says. “I enrolled in Thayer after first grade, back when nobody knew what ADD was. My issue was comprehension; I could read but I couldn’t remember. Now I remember everything, and it was Mrs. Tilden and others at Thayer who molded me—they took that ADD and turned it into useful energy.”

He also lauded former principal, teacher, and coach Marshall Litchfield, who was one of Brad’s football coaches.

“He was a well-respected guy, a razor-sharp coach, and an oceanography biologist who encouraged me to think and produce—and to run faster,” says Brad, who described himself as the classic “class clown” until Thayer changed him. “Thayer taught me what was important, taught me to care, taught me how to learn, and taught me that nonsense was not what I was there for. I went from dunce to director.”

Brad still struggled academically; he graduated 89th in a class of 91 while participating in football, wrestling, and track. But he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in management from Ithaca College and eventually became an assistant sales manager at Sharper Image. Over the next 20 years he advanced to become the worldwide director of business development and brought the company public on the stock market. He then founded a pet products company that over a decade developed the pet stroller, the pet Murphy bed, the pet bicycle, and other unique high-end products.

“I had bought a nice boat and got a captain’s license, and I took someone out for a tuna charter,” recalls Brad, who is an avid boater, competitive sailor, and big game fisherman. “And he asked me to spread the ashes of a relative. I realized that this could be a new business that would keep me on the water. We work with funeral homes but also with the military, the FBI, and the CIA. We do it properly and we don’t cut corners.”

Brad and Julie-Ann live in Marshfield Hills, less than 20 miles from Thayer, and he visits often when he’s not out on the water.

“Passing the Thayer tower on the highway for over 50 years constantly grounds me back to my years there,” Brad says. ‘I made lifelong friends with fellow students and with teachers, and I will be networking with them forever. I encourage my fellow classmates to reflect on their Thayer experience and to pay it forward. We all need to make sure this institution remains healthy and can offer the same incredible education to future generations.”