Joel White

Who was Joel White?

Joel White, the son of author E. B. White and New Yorker Magazine editor Katharine Sergeant Angell White, was a renowned U.S. naval architect known for his classic and beautiful designs including the W-Class of boats. Two W boats were posthumously built by Rockport Marine and Brooklin Boat Yard for Donald Tofias. They were christened White Wings and Wild Horses. White's life and character were chronicled in the book A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time by Douglass Whynott and in Joel White: Boatbuilder / designer / sailor by Bill Mayher and Maynard Bray. White died at the age of 66 in 1997 in Brooklin, Maine of lung cancer. His widow, Allene White, still lives in Brooklin along with two of his sons and their families.