Charter-boat fisherman offered to sell his organs

11/5/2002

MARBLEHEAD, Ohio - Raymond E. White, 81, a retired Lake Erie charter-boat fisherman, died Sunday at Briarfield of Milan nursing home, where he had been a patient for several months. The family did not know a cause of death.

Mr. White opened a small charter-boat business in the late 1950s after working as a carpenter with his father to build homes in an area stretching from Lorain to Canton.

He piloted a small boat, taking out groups of up to six fisherman to the Kelleys Island area in search of perch and walleye, his daughter Irene Lane said.

Mr. White retired about 15 years ago, but still enjoyed fishing on his own.

“You couldn't get him to stop going out in that boat,” his daughter said. “He even went out this year. It gets to be an obsession. But he always kept us in lots of fish.”

Mr. White briefly attracted attention in 1993 when he placed an ad in a Sandusky newspaper offering to trade one of his eyes or a kidney for cash so he could pay for a badly needed knee replacement.

He received no offers to buy the organs and returned donations to sympathizers. No knee replacement was performed.

He was an Army veteran of World War II.

Surviving are his wife, Gladys; daughters, Darlene Dress, Irene Lane, and Mary Ann Sumption; sons, Raymond Jr., Charles, Larry, and Morris; brother, John; sister, Ardith Grimes; 17 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren, a great-great grandchild.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Gerner-Wolf-Brossia-Marsh Funeral Home, Port Clinton, where the body will be after 2 p.m. tomorrow.