50 Plus: A lifelong love of learning

By Alicia Petska

Published: November 14, 2008

Editor’s Note: 50 Plus is a regular special feature profiling Central Virginians ages 50 and over and focusing on a particular theme. This edition’s theme is music. Click here for more 50 Plus stories.

At a time when the hit parade was awash with crooners and jazz songbirds, a young Robert White found himself bopping along, not to the modern tones of Bing Crosby or Peggy Lee, but to the strains of Bach’s famed Brandenburg concertos – circa 1721.

“I didn’t think of it as classical music,” White, 69, recalls. “It was just music.”

“I didn’t understand what the music was, didn’t know who the composers were,” he added. “But it appealed to me.”

White, a professor of French at Lynchburg College, has cultivated a lifelong love of classical music. He began studying the piano at age 8 and has performed in numerous concerts, recordings of which make up two CDs.

His tastes lean toward a style rooted in European culture – although, surprisingly, not French, the language his 42-year teaching career has revolved around.

Instead, his genre of choice is German Lieder, a style of 19th century art song that blends music with poetry.

“To me, it’s the most intimate and insightful form of music there is,” he said.

His passion for German Lieder prompted him to return to school last year, not as a teacher, but as a student studying the German language.

“I was older than not only every other student but every professor, as well,” recalled the grandfather of three.

He is now certified to teach German courses, and has begun to do so at LC.

“This was something I’d always wanted to do, but I waited until I was almost 70 to do it,” he said. “I’m proof it’s quite possible to change or expand fields.”

White encourages others in his age bracket to think about going back to school.

“This is probably the best time in our life,” he said. “We can learn just for learning’s sake, not because we need a job or promotion.”

He plans to take over more German classes next semester and study other subjects, perhaps photography.

“I could never learn enough, because there are all sorts of areas that interest me,” he said, adding cheerily, “I don’t think of myself as old, I guess. When I reach the point where I just sit on the front porch and read the newspaper and complain, then I guess I’ll be old.

“But, right now, I’ve got nothing to complain about now.”