It is with great sadness and regret that we announce the death of Munro College Old Boy Bonito “Bunny” White.
Bonito “Bunny” White was born February 9th, 1949, and was Munro College student from 1960 to 1967, during the era of Richard Roper and Steve Harle, and after studying chemistry at the University of the West Indies, he became a significant part of that great era by returning to Munro in 1972 to teach while they were still there.
He taught chemistry at Munro College for many years, sometimes without a textbook, and might have been a contender for the title of best chemistry teacher in the island if the man who taught him chemistry at Munro without a textbook, a certain Steve Harle, didn’t already hold that title. He did have one significant consolation in that regard, however, as Steve Harle once hailed him as his best ever chemistry student.
He was also for many years the Housemaster of boarding house Pearman Calder, and thus part of the school’s acclaimed senior leadership team.
That formidable leadership team of the early 1970’s to the mid 1980’s, led by Richard Roper and Steve Harle, and supported by housemasters, Mr. Dolphin, Mr. Lowrie, Mr. Reynolds, Mrs. Reynolds, and “Bunny” White, has been likened to the legendary and all-conquering West Indies cricket team led by Clive Lloyd. The stature of “Bunny’ White and his fellow housemasters was illustrated by the high-profile leadership jobs all of them graduated to after being Housemasters at Munro. In the case of “Bunny,” he became the Headmaster of Manning’s High School, one of the few schools in Jamaica older than Munro.
Students who knew him as teacher and Housemaster remember him as a strict disciplinarian, and that trait, in association with his size, meant that a caning from him was something Munro boys feared more than the fabled Munro ghosts of “Pegleg” and “Spooner.”
Discipline aside, however, “Bunny” is also remembered as a mostly a gentle giant with a calm and reassuring demeanor, who was quite easy-going and good humored.
His schoolmates reveal that Bunny was always easy going, and indeed, that was partially because he was always so talented that he seemed to get things done without expending much effort, and tasks at which others struggled, he made look easy. Legend has it that he was one of the most brilliant students ever to pass through Munro and seemed to achieve academic success with minimal effort.
He took this trait into his outstanding sports career at Munro as well. He was a decent footballer and could bowl both pace and spin in cricket, but it was at hockey that he truly excelled. In fact, he was one of Munro’s greatest ever, so it was only fitting that when he returned to teach, he coached many trophy-winning hockey teams at Munro.
Remarkably, “Bunny” was of five Munronians from nearby Epping Forest (Clive “Izy” Rowe, Ryan White, Kenry Jackson, “Bunny” White and Leroy Green), all of the same era, who ended up representing Jamaica in hockey. He played hockey for Jamaica at the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia, where, for the first and last time in history, Jamaica was not defeated by global hockey powerhouse Argentina. Thanks to Bunny’s herculean efforts in defense, the great Argentina was held to a nil-all draw.
We salute our brother “Bunny” White for his stellar contribution to Munro and Jamaica, and we extend our most sincere condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, schoolmates, former students, and the many lives that he touched.
