01/29/2026
On Sunday, January 18th, we lost a giant in the real estate and legal community with the passing of Kenneth I. White, Sr.
Ken was my friend, my colleague, and my mentor. He taught me most everything I know about real estate law, title insurance law and living a full life. He did it all. I met Ken in 1978 when I was a title examiner for Louisville Title Agency. I was one of the many title examiners that Ken trained and mentored. We all knew Ken had a mammoth personality. He wrote songs. He told jokes. He performed on stage. He went to China to procure Panda Bears.
In August of 1987, Ken traveled to Beijing, China as a United States Delegate with then U.S. Attorney General, Edwin Meese III, for the U.S./China Joint Session on Trade, Investment and Economic Law. Several meetings were held with Chinese attorneys in the Great Hall of the People to advise and assist them in legal practices involving trade and development.
While in Beijing, Ken was privileged to sit with the then President of the Toledo Zoological Society in three meetings with the mayor of Beijing, with the Minister of China for Forestry, Wildlife and Conservation and with the Minister of China for Zoological Affairs, which negotiations laid the groundwork for the 1988 summer visit to the Toledo Zoo of the giant Pandas, LeLe and NanNan. He did it all.
Ken was a teacher and a mentor to many. For many years, he was a frequent guest lecturer on real estate law at the University of Toledo and its College of Law, and a frequent speaker before the Lucas County Bar Association and the Toledo Bar Association and its Real Estate and Probate committees. He lectured for over 50 years before the Toledo Bar Association’s annual Junior Law Institute/New Lawyers Training programs. Over 250 real estate title presentations given to mortgage brokers and real estate brokers and agents. He was a speaker at many real estate seminars sponsored by various groups, including the Toledo Bar Association, the University of Toledo College of Law, the Toledo Board of Realtors, the Homebuilders Association of Greater Toledo, and the Paralegal Association of Northwest Ohio.
He was a singer and a songwriter who performed for over 50 years in the Toledo Junior Bar Association’s annual Gridiron Show. He was the recipient of that Association’s annual “Order of the Heel” award in 1978 and its “Order of the Sole” award in 2012; recipient of the 2009 Toledo Bar Association “Robert A. Kelb” award; 2010 University of Toledo College of Law “Distinguished Alumnus of the Year”. He was also a proud member of the very exclusive Tile Club of Toledo, which was limited to 20 members, who were artists, musicians and authors founded in 1895, whose original members helped fund the Toledo Museum of Art. He did it all.
In 1999, or thereabouts, when he was 63 or 64 years old, Ken started his own title company called American First Title Agency. I always admired him for doing that as it took real guts and real balls to do that at that age. I started AREA Title Agency when I was 36 and was just foolish enough to think that I would make it. So far so good. In 2013, I was honored and thrilled to have Ken join us at AREA Title. He already had over 50 years experience in the title industry and knew everybody. He had done work on all of the largest buildings, projects, malls and industrial complexes in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. I knew the honesty, integrity and principles of Ken White would be a natural fit for us. And it certainly was. For over 12 years Ken was our mentor, our father figure and our friend. He was and will always be the Dean of Real Estate Law in Toledo. He wrote the book, literally, two of them, with hundreds of publications still in circulation. When we needed an answer at the office, someone would say “CONSULT THE ORACLE!” We always got the answer, but usually with a pun, or a joke, or a story, which we affectionately referred to as “Vaudevillian Tourettes”. He simply couldn’t help himself. It’s who he was. He told us jokes. He sang us songs. He tutored us and he loved us. He did it all! He will be missed. Thank you all for your support. Ken’s family will be having a private burial ceremony. He will be laid to rest next to his wife, Linda. A Celebration of Life is in the works. Respectfully,
-Michael D. Repass
