Archaeologists celebrate

organization longevity

SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2009

Special to the Chronicle

NEW YORK - Bone diggers, explorers and survival experts gathered at the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) 130^th Anniversary Gala at Capital, honoring Harrison Ford for his portrayal of Indiana Jones. The event also celebrated the 60^th anniversary of Archaeology Magazine.

Dr. Michele White and Dr. Ashley White, with their son, Ethan went to celebrate with the AIA.

Michele is a prominent physical anthropologist and published author. Her husband, Ashley, has been researching ancient diseases and their initial presentations for prevention of future pandemic plagues. This evidenced based paleopathology research has granted Ashley access to some of the world’s most sensitive archaeological sites in England, Scotland and North and Central America and nine additional countries in Europe and Asia, including Russia and China, the Middle East, North and Sub-Sahara Africa and South America, including the Amazon Basin.

Other gala attendees included Travel Channel Host Samantha Brown, hunkie explorer TV host Josh Bernstein, shipwreck explorer and TV host James Delgado, maven of uncovering underwater cities George Bass, Bravo TV’s styling diva Grechen Monahan, Executive Director of the AIA, Teresa Keller and President of the AIA, Brian Rose.

The evening was celebrated with a traditional Mayan feast prepared by Maya food archaeologist Patricio Balone, Maya archaeologist Ben Thomas and Capital Executive Chef Jason Munger.

The ancient menu attracted the taste buds of Bavo TV’s Top Chef Season 5 cast as their reunion entailed an abundance of ancient ale, corn cakes and roasted feral pork.

There were silent and live auctions offering exotic getaways to ancient Maya and Roman ruins, rare artifacts, art and ancient documents. Cast members included Leah Cohen, Ariane Duarte, Jill Snyder, Radhika Desai, and Patrick Dunlea. The after-party included Ancient Ales from around the world and decadent desserts.

Additional details are available online at  www.archaeological.org

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Sharing the wealth

Retired Florida doctors spread art, research and care through their community and the world.

By Kim Steele
The Practice Report
Advanstar Communications Inc.
June 2004

Drs. Ashley and Michele White are no strangers to wealth. The Whites, who own a 1000-acre ranch in Ocala, Fla., collect rare art, raise and breed full-blooded cattle for research, and purchase land in developing areas to keep it from being over-built. Their art collection features 53 masterworks by artists like Cezanne, Degas, Guillaumin, Manet, Pissarro, Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Sisley and Matisse. The Whites own paintings by all of the major Impressionists, and also have post-Impressionist and Realist collections. Because of their value, the works are on continuous loan to universities and private venues. The collections have been displayed around the world, in London, Berlin, New York, Paris and Chicago.

The cattle, known as Belted Galloways because of the distinctive white belt that covers the middle of their bodies, are part of a specialized breed that numbers only about 10,000 in the world. The Whites have 22 Belted Galloways, and are using them to develop a disease-free animal for cancer research. In fact, the couple created Dr. White Genetics, a research facility that is registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Whites began buying large tracts of land years ago after seeing wooded areas covered with grandfather oaks being stripped for subdivisions, with nothing left but dirt. The couple has contracts on thousands of acres of land, mostly rural forests and wetlands, which they are developing as a mutual home for people and wildlife. The Whites estimate the value of their land investments in the millions.

So how did they get so wealthy? As John Houseman once said, they made their money the old-fashioned way, they earned it. They have banked one of their salaries as long as they've been together and they've made some wise investments, primarily in real estate. That gave them opportunities most only dream about.

Helping the needy

"We retired comfortably but found that managing the ranch and land development left us unfulfilled," said Ashley, who, along with Michele, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina. "My wife said that since we had gone to school all those years, we should give something back. I agreed. So we purchased an old clinic about 70 miles from home, remodeled it and opened up after about a year of planning."

The couple, both maxillofacial pathologists, originally owned a hospital-based oral medicine practice in Ocala. Ashley treated adults, while Michele focused on children. Their patients included those with severe diseases such as HIV and leukemia and others who were awaiting transplants. Now, Ashley incises and drains abscesses, does biopsies and performs oral surgery on adults, while Michele handles pediatric oral surgery. They provide their care free of charge.

The clinic has six full-time employees and is open all week. Ashley works about five hours each Monday and Wednesday and Michele sees patients about five hours each Tuesday and Thursday. The doctors kept their hospital privileges in Ocala because many of the patients initially go to the emergency room and need to be treated by the Whites. Michele currently has about 3,800 children under her care.

Ashley said the migrant and temporary workers are drawn to the area from Central America by the horse, potato and flower industries. He said the workers have no insurance, and few can get the temporary work papers to qualify for Medicaid. If they do, it reimburses very little. That's why the Whites don't charge for their services. Ashley said that last year Michele provided more than $600,000 in free care, and his contribution pushed it closer to $900,000.

"Honestly, I would have never seen myself doing this 10 years ago," said Ashley. "But I'm glad I am, and my wife says it's a neat way to practice because you don't have to ask for money. We occasionally get a small fee from the government, but most everything is on us. And we just do what our patients actually need. 

Ashley said he and Michele strongly believe that sharing is important; and that commitment extends to their art collection, research on cattle and land investments. "It was always the plan to let the artwork travel," he continued. "Everyone should have access to the enjoyment and emotions that come from looking at a Monet landscape. A normal exhibit will cost a museum $60,000 for insurance and security. But we will always loan the works at no cost. We cover everything on our own."

The Whites want to dispense information they learn from their Belted Galloway cattle, too. The cows are unique because they have two layers of fur, can eat almost any poisonous plant without consequence, dig for food if it is hidden under snow, kick with their front and back feet, and do not develop hoof rot. Ashley's goal is to establish a disease-free closed herd. To do that, he imported expensive cattle semen from Australia, to continue the herd's ancient bloodline.

"One of my research goals is to demonstrate a link between the human papilloma virus and oral cancer," said Ashley. "We have demonstrated that cattle can carry the same virus exactly, and we would like to know how it causes a tumor to change from benign to malignant. Survival rates of about every known cancer in the world have increased, but orofacial cancer still has not improved."

Ashley said the couple's interest in land started as an investment in the future growth of several cities, not as a concern about over-development. But as they watched wooded areas disappear, they realized something needed to be done to protect both the vegetation and wildlife. Their landscape design features one home per 10 acres, with stringent deed restrictions and no tree removal other than for home sites.

"With our lands, we set aside large areas for habitats," said Ashley. "We have been able to create a home for people and wildlife together."

Editor's update:

The White's free clinic continued to grow at a staggering rate and in 2007 Ashley and Michele found it was time to transition the practice to several other groups, including the University and the State. 

During the near 10 year span of operating the practice, the White's provided 20 million dollars of charitable care to the people of Florida.

GROUNDED FOR LIFE

OCALA STAR BANNER
New York Times Publication
By Ginger Broslat
Photos By John Brett

Whether it's free medical care, land preservation, or Impressionist art, a local family believes in giving back to the community. In a big way. -

When one first hears about a retired couple practicing in a free health clinic, loaning their art collections, and sponsoring research, the vision includes gray hair and wrinkles...

Drs. Ashley and Michele White, however, are young and enjoying life and use their blessings to help and inspire others.

The couple retired young from a very successful practice as maxillofacial pathologists. They met in graduate school at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. They were good friends who saw a relationship bloom out of deep-rooted interests in music, art, travel, and nature. A pathology professor heightened their common interests.

"He knew as much about Impressionist art as he did the pathology of cancer cells," recalls Ashley. The professor would share a litany of slides of various cancer cells, explaining the delicate nuances in each type. After a time of pathology, he would project slides of Impressionist art. "It was a great break in the class and he had an incredible knowledge of art. It was inspiring."

That inspiration led to a summer trek across Europe when the couple was in graduate school. They visited the museums they had longed to see and enjoyed viewing priceless pieces of history.

Though free spirits by nature, both are disciplined workers and they each invested wisely and saved diligently. For seven years, the couple put in long hours and banked one salary with the intent to retire early. That plan came to fruition several years ago when they moved to their 100-acre ranch to tend the cattle and manage real estate investments. But while the couple enjoyed life, they wanted to do more.

"My wife felt like we had spent too much time and money on our education to not use it," says Ashley.

The doctors renovated an abandoned clinic in Palatka with the intent to provide free and indigent medical care. Many migrant families with no benefits come to their clinic.

"In many cases," says Ashley, "we are the only medical provider they have ever seen."

The work is rewarding. The doctors are able to provide the care that is needed without concerns of insurance approval and reimbursement or payment from their patients.

"It's a rewarding way to practice!"

With freedom from the need to make the practice a financial resource, the Whites are able to dedicate time to their son Ethan, their most precious treasure. When one is working the clinic, the other is at the farm. In addition to involved parenting, this flexibility in scheduling also allows travel time to view art collections.

"We've purchased most of our pieces from estate sales," Ashley shares. "Some of the works get tied up in litigation between families, museums, and brokers. We try to find ways to creatively free up the art so it can be viewed and shared."

The Whites' collections have been loaned for display at renowned international museums and universities. Currently, pieces from their French Impressionists collection are on display at the Appleton Museum of Art.

"We believe art is for everyone," says Ashley. "It's wonderful for us to see others, especially students, get to experience these wonderful pieces of history."

Wise real estate investments further funded the Whites' early retirement. However, they have maintained some very strict development clauses in their transactions.

"We're pretty serious about land preservation," he says. "We want people and animals to be able to live together with trees."

Their dedication to preservation increased when they saw a grove of 100-year-old oaks destroyed for a subdivision. Their requirements and deed restrictions are so strict on land they sell that essentially only someone who shares the same views will purchase it.

"If they're willing to deal with the deed restrictions we require, we know they are as serious as we are about preserving the land."

This unique family is motivated by a love of life. They realize the most valuable collections they possess are family and friends. It is their goal to increase that collection each day by helping those they meet along's journey.

"My wife said we needed to give back," concludes Ashley. "She was right."

Intimate Impressions
European Prints from the Collection of Drs. Ashley and Michele White Through February 27

The Appleton Museum of Art is pleased to present a complete tour of art in the 19th century. The mainstay collection of the Appleton is the 19th century Academic Painters. On loan from the Cleveland Museum is the American Impressionists exhibit. The addition of the Whites' collection of French Impressionist prints and etchings -- original artwork of Cezanne, Degas, Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Pissarro -- completes the history lesson of this significant period of art. "This is an incredible continuum of the very important genres in 19th century art," says Jim Rosengren of the Appleton. Museum Curator Dr. Leslie Hammond agrees: "The three exhibits individually are great. To have them together is wonderful!"

SAINT JOHN'S CC PRESS RELEASE
January 2006

COLLECTORS SHARE ART WITH FLOARTS, COMMUNITY; DESIGN LIFE AROUND FAMILY, ART AND TRAVEL

Behind the most recent gallery opening at the Florida School of the Arts - the Impressionist and Post Impressionist Prints- are two doctors who have found a way to design their lives around family while cultivating a love for art, travel and community.

Drs. Ashley and Michele White have loaned their collection of original artwork of Cezanne, Degas, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Guillauimin and Sisley to FloArts until Feb. 17 - free of charge. "The experience you get from viewing the works of a Master like Monet is something everyone should have access to. Our collections will always be traveling and always will be at no charge for people to enjoy," said Ashley. "We both have a shared passion for Impressionist works, mostly the use of color." The exhibits are on display in the Main Gallery at the Florida School of the Arts, located on the Palatka Campus of St. Johns River Community College (SJRCC). The gallery is free and open to the public. Prior to FloArts, the collection was on loan to the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala.

The retired couple met in graduate school at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where Michele worked at the UNC School of Medicine Department of Pharmacology, and Ashley worked as a researcher at Duke University in engineering. After working hard for many years at a maxillofacial pathologist practice, spending conservatively and years of planning real estate development, the couple retired early. They now live on a 100-acre working cattle ranch in Ocala, with an additional 1,000 acre timber plantation across the road. They have purchased other large parcels of land as well in developing areas with the intention of keeping it from being overdeveloped.

In addition, the couple operates a clinic in Palatka with Michele focusing on pediatrics as a provider for children's oral pathology and surgery. Ashley treats adults and children with special needs. Ashley and Michele take turns between working on the farm and working in the clinic, devoting the majority of their time to their son, Ethan. And traveling is a family affair that has taken them all around the world. "We have traveled out in the vast Sahara on camels, been all around Africa and the Middle East, crawled alone on our stomachs down shafts under the Great Pyramids in Egypt... visited Stonehenge alone with World Heritage permits and actually go in the circle and touch the stones (they have been fenced for decades)," said Ashley. They have traveled to the Forbidden City in Beijing and remote locations of the Great Wall, Mongolia and to the border of North Korea. And that is just to mention a few of the places they have visited.

Archaeology and anthropology are our interests both for fun and professionally. My wife and I completed the UNC forensics program," added Ashley.

Some of their travel stems from Michele's interest in marathons. She has run in the Athens marathon, also in Paris, and on the Great Wall in China. In 2002, she was the Master's winner of the Ocala marathon.

The couple will soon be in Russia for another one of Michele's marathons. They will take the opportunity to travel elsewhere in the world while there. "We have designed our life about family. My wife is also my best friend, and we like spending time together. I will not be one of those people who says 'gosh, I wish I would have spent less time at the office and more time with my family'," said Ashley.

David Ouellette, instructor and gallery director at Florida School of the Arts, said "I'm delighted with Drs. Ashley and Michele White's gracious loan of this exhibition of Impressionists prints. About three years ago, they also leant the gallery a remarkable collection of prints by Henri Matisse. I've enjoyed a number of conversations with Ashley where he shared many of his and Michele's ventures and experiences, most often related to the art world and its many treasures." 

 

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