Lehi People
Heritage Day: Rod and Becky White’s decades of service to Lehi students and athletes
Rod and Becky White met in high school and have been sweethearts ever since. After high school, Rod served an LDS mission in his mother’s homeland, Helsinki, Finland. Rod and Becky went on to graduate from college, Rod from the University of Utah and Becky from Brigham Young University,
Rod is the son of Quentin and Marja-Riitta White and grew up on their family farm in Highland. Becky is the daughter of Marlin and Donna Barnes. Rod and Becky made their first home in Lehi at the farmhouse Becky’s dad grew up in on the Barnes farm. They both developed a strong connection to family heritage while living there. Becky’s grandparents have deep Lehi roots. She is the granddaughter of Harold and Margaret Barnes and Don and Betty Fowler. Both couples were pillars in the Lehi community and instilled a deep love for Lehi and community service in Becky.
After graduating from college, Rod began his career in logisticsand fulfillment and currently works for Maersk as a Senior Vice-President of Operations. He oversees shipping facilities all over the Midwest and western part of the country. Rod loves workingwith people from all different walks of life and enjoys making life-long connections and learning from his colleagues. He loves the outdoors and nature and spent many summers as a kid traveling across the country with his family, visiting historical sites. He learned woodworking from his dad and has used those skills to create incredible projects for himself and his family. He’s an avid snow and water skier and enjoys passing those passions on to his kids.
Becky started her dream career as a teacher at Lehi High School. She taught business and marketing classes, and in 1997, started one of the first sports marketing programs in the state. Her sports marketing classes were instrumental in bringing about events like the annual Mascot Bowl, Jazz Bear basketball games, and the Bear Hugs for Kids Christmas shopping event. Over the 15 years of the Mascot Bowl, White’s program raised enough money to take approximately 2000 local children on Christmas shopping trips with Santa and the Utah Jazz Bear. Her sports marketing program won numerous state and local awards and became the standard other schools followed. She taught for 27 years at Lehi High School and finished her career at Skyridge High School before retiring in 2019.
Some of Rod and Becky’s favorite activities were sitting in the stands, cheering for Lehi athletes, including their children and others’ as well. They loved watching them succeed and being a part of the Lehi community that supported them. Their daughter Syd was part of three Lehi Pioneer state championship teams. Rod watched his kids play and coached them in baseball and softball. He dedicated many hours traveling around the country with their travel ball teams. In his final year of coaching, he coached alongside his son, Riley. That year, their softball team placed third in the most prestigious national tournament, the highest a Utah team has ever finished.
Their summers were always full of baseball and softball, and they have treasured memories of amazing experiences and people they were associated with through their kids’ participation in high school and college sports.
The Whites are the parents of four children and have seven grandkids. Riley, Aly, and Carley followed in Becky’s footsteps and became teachers, while Syd pursued nursing and is finishing her degree to become a nurse practitioner. Family is the most important thing to them, and they love to spend time together each Sunday at what their kids lovingly call their childhood home, “HQ.” They proudly call Lehi their home and feel honored to be recognized as one of the Lehi Heritage Days 2024 honorees.
