Roderick “Rod” William White, Sr., 81, of Huntingtown, MD, passed away Wednesday, February 26, 2020 at his residence. Rod was born on July 5, 1938 in Pittsfield, MA to Roderick Ploss White and Mary Parker Jackson. Following high school, Rod joined the United States Air Force and was stationed in many different places during his service, the last of which was in Arizona. After his discharge, Rod held various space related jobs all over the country and resided in California, Florida, and Virginia. He worked primarily as an aerospace engineer for COMSAT and Intelsat in Washington, D.C. from 1968 to 1983, and then for the American Satellite Corporation in Rockville from 1983 to 1987. In 1989 Rod joined the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center contractor community and was a systems engineer on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Series (I-M and N-P) projects until his retirement in 2011. Rod married Joyce in October of 1992 and they lived in Huntingtown. In the 1970’s Rod enjoyed riding dirt bike motorcycles and British sportscars and as time went on, he became more involved with show cars and street rods. He also enjoyed camping, ham radio, high school and college basketball, NASCAR, motocross, TV satellites, yardwork, and spending time with his family and his beloved dogs, Aubrey, Rollo, Molly, and Holly Dog.

Rod is survived by his wife Joyce L. White of Huntingtown, children Roderick W. White, Jr. and wife Bonnie Jo of Rising Sun, MD, Wendy L. Bowles of Alexandria, LA, David R. White of Deale, Robyn L. St. Andre and husband Dustin of Ruston, LA, Robert P. White and wife Amanda of Dunkirk, and Ryan L. White of Huntingtown. He is also survived by seven grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren, siblings Patricia, Michael, and Phillip, and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Rod’s name may be made to Save a Lab Rescue at the link below.