The Providence Journal has The Rev. Howard White, ex-St. George’s assistant chaplain, accused of sex abuse at N.H. prep school. An excerpt:
An alumnus of St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, has accused the Rev. Howard W. “Howdy” White Jr. of sexually abusing him during White’s time there between 1967 through 1971, the school confirmed Tuesday. White served as a chaplain and teacher at the prestigious Episcopal boarding institution.
White, who subsequently became assistant chaplain at St. George’s School in Middletown, is one of a half-dozen former staff members who figured in a sex-abuse scandal at St. George’s. A Rhode Island State Police investigation, concluded in June, found no prosecutable criminal misconduct against any of the alleged perpetrators, or the school, in part due to statutes of limitations.
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White, now retired in Pennsylvania, remains under investigation by police in Waynesville, North Carolina, where two accusers stepped forward since the St. George’s scandal broke in December. One is a man whom county social services placed with White at a church rectory. The man, who was then 15, told The Journal he fled after White raped and sexually molested him multiple times. A former parishioner said White molested her when she was a teenager.
A Journal investigation published in May found that White has left a trail of sex-abuse allegations spanning more than four decades, including after St. George’s fired him. Those include alleged incidents in Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, West Virginia, North Carolina and now, New Hampshire. White has not been charged with any crime.
In its police-fire section the Concord Monitor has St. Paul’s School graduate accuses former school chaplain of sex abuse:
St. Paul’s contacted the Concord Police Department on Thursday about the allegations involving the Rev. Howard “Howdy” White, who worked in the private school’s Sacred Studies Department from fall 1967 to spring 1971.
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News that St. George’s had hired a private investigator this past January to look into decades-old allegations of sexual abuse raised concern among St. Paul’s administrators, the school’s rector, Michael Hirschfeld, wrote in a letter to alumni Friday. The Rhode Island investigation prompted St. Paul’s to retain its own lawyer, former Massachusetts attorney general Scott Harshbarger, to investigate any misconduct by White during his time in Concord. Initially, the school found no evidence. But through its internal investigation, one accuser came forward, the school said.
The Monitor adds that the statute of limitations would apply under New Hampshire law.
The Asheville, NC Citizen-Times has Former Waynesville rector accused of abuse at NH prep school:
After St. Paul’s and St. George’s, White served in leadership positions at two other privates schools – Chatham Hall in Virginia and Asheville Country Day in North Carolina – before becoming rector of a church in Waynesville, North Carolina. Waynesville police are investigating White for alleged abuse there, according to the Providence Journal.
In February, The Episcopal of Western North Carolina in an open letter to parishioners acknowledged White had been accused of sexual abuse while serving at a Waynesville church for 12 years. The diocese said a member of Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains in Waynesville reported being sexually abused by White while she was a juvenile. White served as rector of Grace Episcopal from 1984 to 2006.
The Waynesville woman, who has not been named, told the Globe that White molested her in the rectory of Grace Episcopal in the mid-1980s when she was a sophomore in high school. The Rev. Canon Jim Pritchett of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina, which is based in Asheville, said the woman contacted his office to report the abuse, and the diocese filed a police report.
For more on these alleged incidents click the Rev. Howard White tag to this post. White’s early career in West Virginia and his movement to New Hampshire are charted here.
The Episcopal Church has promised an investigation into how White could have moved from diocese to diocese without information sharing among the dioceses on the allegations made against him in West Virginia and Rhode Island. White went to St. Paul’s School (in the Diocese of New Hampshire) from the Diocese of West Virginia at a time when the diocese may have had of allegations against him. The diocese certainly knew of allegations of sex abuse in West Virginia when it was later sued; at the time White was rector of Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains in Waynesville.