We’re celebrating our 40th anniversary with monthly dives into our archives. This month’s look back is from our November 2006 issue.
Richmond magazine's former creative director Steve Hedberg worked with photographer Adam Ewing on this image of Ralph White, then manager of the James River Park System. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
For a November 2006 profile, senior writer Harry Kollatz Jr. delved into Ralph White’s life story, tracing his journey from New York City’s Queens borough to Thailand, where he established a wildlife preserve, to national parks in North Dakota and Arizona, and finally to Richmond. Here, White devoted himself to transforming the James River Park System from a place people considered dirty and unsafe to a cherished urban wilderness.
Since retiring as park manager in 2013 after more than three decades, White, who celebrated his 75th birthday in April with a trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, continues to encourage appreciation of nature’s beauty. He planted a small orchard of fruit trees at Southampton Elementary School, so that children can sit in the shade and play among butterflies. He placed daffodil bulbs at road signs and utility poles around his Stratford Hills neighborhood and installed signs marking the headwaters of streams such as Rock Falls Creek and Rattlesnake Creek.
“The purpose is to make people aware of what’s there,” he says. “With knowledge comes power. … I believe that an empowered community can solve all kinds of problems."
