Roger White: From "Obituary: Roger White: Writer and editor, 'poet laureate' of the Baha'i community," by Robert Weinberg; published in Baha'i Studies Review, vol. 7 (1997):
John Roger White was born in Toronto on 2 June 1929, into a Roman Catholic family of Irish ancestry... While the family was not especially devout, Roger, the eldest of the children, regularly attended mass, often taking his younger sister Eileen with him... It was during his early twenties that he confided to a close friend that he had doubts about the existence of God - a crisis of faith which he later was to draw upon for a young character in his poem, "New Song"... While in Toronto, he was introduced to the Baha'i Faith by Gary Rea-Airth. Attending fireside meetings in Kingston, Ontario, he became very attached to the prominent Canadian Baha'i teacher and administrator, Winnifred Harvey... He became a Baha'i in August 1951... from these earliest days, Roger developed a deep, personal affinity with the early heroes of the Faith...