27 Header Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Member Spotlight In 2017, at the urging of a coworker, Gary Anderson, White joined the PLSO. It proved to be a pivotal decision that filled a mentorship void and provided him with a vital professional network. “Pat Gaylord, John Putnam, Brady McGarry, Jared McGrath—I can call any of these individuals if I have a question or need help,” White says with gratitude. “That‘s something I don‘t think I would have if I wasn‘t involved with PLSO.” White‘s world was upended in 2022 when he contracted Covid, spent eight months in the hospital, was put into a coma, temporarily paralyzed, and nearly died. However, his resilience and upbeat mindset helped carry him through. “You know, I looked at a couple different things, different ways,” White reflects. “I can either be defeated by what's happening and just let this thing take me down, or I can sit here and make jokes about it and move forward . . . I can only control my mindset that I have about it.” Despite lingering physical disabilities, White has returned to work. He credits his diehard love of the University of Oregon Ducks football team for encouraging him to complete his physical therapy. “I said, ‘I’m a season ticket holder to the Ducks games! I have to be out of physical therapy by the start of football season.‘” In fact, he gave his parents the tickets to the first game that year, but he was at the second, and every other one since then. “Even death can‘t keep me from a Ducks game,” he jokes. There were some tough spots, such as losing his dog during the pandemic, but he and his girlfriend, Kaitlyn, have got a brand new baby boxer puppy, Bunny, to expand their family. “She gets me up and down the stairs and out the door,” he says. As for work, remote sensing technologies like LIDAR and photogrammetry allow him to remain active in surveying operations. Looking ahead, one of White‘s biggest passions is fostering the next generation of surveyors by promoting the profession to young people through programs like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. “I put a lot of passion into trying to work with programs like that, to try and get the word of surveying out to the youth of Oregon and Washington,” he says. “So that way, we can start expanding this great profession again.” Jesse standing on top of a 26-story municipal building in Reading, Pennsylvania, on a job where an HVAC unit on top of the building was being replaced. Jesse was trying to get the precise structural layout of the rooftop area and elevations to either crane in the HVAC unit or have it brought in by helicopter. Jesse meeting with field crew in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, on the Mariner East Gas Line Retracement and Repair project.
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