We are sad to announce the death of Bonnie Patricia Veitch White who passed away in the care of Hospice on October 4, 2022 at the age of 85. Bonnie was a warm and loving mother, aunt, mother-in-law, and grandmother, both to her own family, as well as to anyone she found in need of nurturing, a listening ear, warm hug or a kind message. She is greatly missed.

A service to celebrate Bonnie’s life will be held Saturday, November 5, at 2 p.m., at the First Congregational Church of Camden. A reception will follow at Union Hall in Rockport. All are welcome and encouraged to attend these nondenominational, casual and inclusive gatherings.

Bonnie was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Chalres Edgar Veitch and Taume Wolff Veitch in February of 1937.

Growing up she was a dedicated big sister to her only sibling, younger brother Charles Edgar Veitch, Jr. She was a determined and shy student who often found herself teased for the ways in which she learned important class topics. This challenge became a seed of fierce empathy and compassion that would later prove to help her to not only persist in her own education goals, but grow into a skilled enabler and advocate to students she worked with later in life.

Bonnie attended Greensboro College, a college for women only, in the 1950s, completing a major in Early Childhood Education and continuing on to Master’s level Education studies at Smith College and Clark School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Although there was no specific major in deaf language or language development at this time, this was Bonnie’s path and she became a teacher in training at the Clark School for the Deaf.

After graduation, Bonnie took a job at the Ft. Lauderdale Oral School in Florida. It was here she met a family from Texas and was hired to become a private educator for their daughter in their Texas home. Bonnie spent several happy years in Texas before returning to the East Coast.

When she returned to the mid-Atlantic states in the 1960s, Bonnie continued to pursue her passion of supporting language development in a unique way; she was cast as a character in a flagship close-captioned television program, “Happy Talks.” Bonnie played Aunt Harriet who playfully and ardently taught language to an elf.

At the television station, she met a film-camera operator named Ralph “Steve” White and captured his heart. The couple married, returned to Clark School for the Deaf, and began a family. Their three children, Michel White, Katherine White and David White share many wonderful qualities with Bonnie as she parented them with her blend of love, empathy, attention, and warmth. 

In 1974 the family left Massachusetts to spend the next 10 years in Fairfax, Virginia. Bonnie was a full time parent and private educator for deaf students.

The family moved to Maine in 1984 leaving behind many friends who have lasted a lifetime. Bonnie returned to working full-time, giving an abundance of attention and care to supporting students in the Camden-Rockport Public School System (Maine School Administrative District 28) as a special education teacher and speech pathologist.

For more than 20 years,  Bonnie worked compassionately, mindfully, and individually with students to help them define and achieve success in their K-12 schooling. Many students looked forward to their time with “Mrs. White” as their chance to be heard and focused on in their own terms.

Although Bonnie retired in 2007, she continued to substitute teach and privately tutor students until 2019. During her long career with the Camden-Rockport Public schools, Bonnie taught in every single building in the school system—even several that are no longer in use as school buildings, or no longer standing. 

Bonnie was an active member of the First Congregational Church of Camden, joining the membership in 1985. She held leadership positions year after year on the Christian Education, Deacons, and Outreach Committees. She was also a member of the First Church handbell choir as well as a part of the committee to purchase the specially-cast handbells in the early 1990s.

Bonnie’s care, advocacy, and warmth has touched thousands of students, friends, and communities. She was a deeply-loved member of her Camden-Rockport, Maine, community and Congregational Church family, the Fairfax, Virginia community where she raised a young family, the Clark School for the Deaf community in Northampton, Massachusetts where she solidified her love of teaching, and the Winston-Salem, North Carolina community where she was born and raised.

To many students, friends, and family members Bonnie was a person to open up to, a needed respite from being judged or judging themselves, and someone who was always tangibly, palpably sharing love, care and compassion. Bonnie transformed her own struggles as a young girl and student into helping her students, family, friends, and loved ones feel what it means to be celebrated for exactly who they are and supported as they carve their own path.

Bonnie’s warm and empathetic heart, creativity, humor, desire to help others and be of service, and gregarious friendliness live on in her children. Bonnie rarely talked about herself or her work at length but shared her pride and enjoyment in her children and family freely.

Her son Michael has done many things in his career, and embodies Bonnie’s humor and welcoming nature. He made Bonnie so proud by also finding time, for years, to lead the Camden Snow Bowl Alpine Race program and coaching new ski racers.

Bonnie’s daughter Katherine’s path has been an eclectic journey weaving together arts, design, food, and service. She shares Bonnie’s drive to support others and lift them up.  Bonnie was beyond proud when Katherine traveled to India and worked with Mother Teresa serving the poorest of the poor.

Early in life, Bonnie’s youngest child, David, announced that someday he would work on the fictitious X-Wing fighters from Star Wars. Later, David embodied Bonnie’s own persistence in education and overcame standardized learning challenges to become a specialized engineer working on the most advanced planes the U.S. Navy flies. Bonnie couldn’t have been more proud to see her children’s individual journeys’ and the way they have chosen to contribute to local and global communities.

Bonnie is survived by her children, Michael Steven White (Suzanne Dunavent White), Katherine Elizabeth White, and David Andrew White (Shirin Scotten); her grandchildren Sydney and Rhys White; Owen Morong; Morgan, Stirling, and Adrian Scotten-White; nieces Christie Veitch Martinez (Silas Martinez) and Camille Botsford Cobb (Tom Cobb), nephews Charles Veitch (Mercy Tomayo) and Geoffrey Veitch, and former spouse Ralph “Steve” White.

Bonnie was predeceased by her parents, Charles Edgar Veitch and Martha Eunice Elizabeth “Taume” Wolff Veitch, and her brother, Charles “Eddie” Veitch.

To continue Bonnie’s legacy of warmly receiving learners, meeting people where they are and creating a comfort zone where people can build confidence and successes, please consider giving to Bonnies Learning Legacy in lieu of flowers or gifts. All funds raised in Bonnie's name will directly benefit the Camden Public Library and children of her community in two concrete ways: 

1. Bolstering the "Stock the Stacks" program, assisting our library in supplying children and their parents with the books that our mom loved to read, along with those that would be most helpful for the library to continue supporting early childhood education. Books purchased with Bonnie's funds will contain a plaque inside the cover in her memory. 

2. Installing a soft reading nook in an alcove in the Children's Room, donated in Bonnie's name, that used to hold the puppet theater. This will create that cozy space Bonnie always found when reading to children and include a remembrance of Bonnie with her name on a plaque overlooking the seating.  

Donations in any amount are appreciated and go towards remembering Bonnie and her passion for caring, teaching, and supporting others in this way that matches her own generosity and warmth. Donations can be made on GoFund me here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bonnies-learning-legacy.

Gifts may also be made directly to the Camden Public Library, 55 Main Street, Camden, ME 04843 with a note on the memo line Attn: Bonnie’s Learning Legacy.