Bob White started working for the Exchange at the Fort Myer PX when he was 17, a little nervous, not knowing what to expect.
That was in 1972.
“I was assigned as a sales clerk in the shoe department,” said White, now Eastern Region Senior Vice President. “My supervisor was Mrs. Renovich. She was very strict and had zero tolerance for excuses but did take me under her wing.”
White joined the Exchange because he wanted to buy a car, and his mother insisted that he earn the money to pay for it. He bought a 1965 Buick Special for $895. He says it was his favorite car he ever owned because he paid for it himself.
Fifty-three years and 15 cars later, White shared his thoughts with the Exchange Post as he prepares to retire on Dec. 19.
“I don’t know that I’d do my career 100% the same way,” White said, “but if I didn’t do it the same way, I wouldn’t have the life and family that I am so proud of today. And that includes the Exchange family.”
Moving on up
After about a year in the Fort Myer shoe department, White realized he could get a small raise if he transitioned to a porter position. He cleaned restrooms and kept the store clean.
“I often tell my folks, ‘Do more than is expected,’” he said. “I developed a habit of ‘OK, I can clean the bathrooms—but I can also go down to the stockroom and do something else.’ When I wasn’t cleaning, I was in the store helping other departments.”
White says he got his work ethic from his mother, who worked for more than 30 years on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C..
“My dad died when I was about 10 years old, and my mom never remarried,” White said. “I watched my mom work and raise three boys. I look at my brothers Don and Paul today and we all share the same work ethic as our mom.”
In 1978, White took on his first management job, as the branch manager of a Four Seasons at Andrews AFB. Bob Ellis, who would later go on to play an important role in Exchange support after the 9/11 attacks, managed a gas station across the street.
“The transition to management wasn’t that difficult for me, because I’d been with the Exchange for six years,” White said. “I had been a warehouse foreman at Myer, supervising six people, and now I was managing 12. I was there for maybe six months when an HR chief came to me and said, ‘I’ve got a job in Thule, Greenland, for you.’”
Going overseas
White agreed to take the Thule (now Pittufik Space Base) position for a year. It was his first time outside the Virginia region where he grew up.
White was assistant BX manager. At the time, the manager and assistant manager usually lived in officers’ quarters, but there was no room when he arrived. Along with the Danish associates, off-duty military also worked at the store. White eventually moved in with them.
“It worked out,” he said. I was this 20-something-year-old kid with all these military guys who made sure I was successful. That’s probably when I started to realize that you’re only as good as the people around you.”
After a year in Greenland, White returned to more familiar territory, working in a variety of positions at the Langley AFB Exchange from 1980 to 1984. When he returned overseas, he was the retail manager at Aviano AB for about a year before taking his first general manager job at Comiso Air Station in Sicily.
“The U.S. was building up cruise missile bases in Italy,” White said. “There were no accommodations at the time, so I lived off-base. I had to drive to work through protesters who were against the buildup. I remember them shaking my car and throwing rocks. But it turned out to be another fantastic assignment. I was surrounded by a super-supportive local-national workforce that ensured our success.”
When White was the general manager of the RAF Alconbury Exchange in England, his daughter Megan and his son Matt were born.
“What I remember about Alconbury is the people who worked with me,” White said. “I had a food court manager, Fred Townsend, who had worked as a footman for the royal family. He was absolutely amazing with the stories he could tell. John Major was the prime minister at the time and he had a residence almost right outside the gate at Alconbury.”
After nearly a decade in Europe, White returned to the States in 1993—coming home to his first Exchange, Fort Myer, this time as general manager.
Back in the USA—and then back to Europe
White came back to the U.S. at a time when his mother was having health problems. She passed away in 1995.
“The Exchange did right by me,” White said. “We lived close enough that she was able to see her grandkids when they were little, and I got to have two more years with her.”
White moved from Myer to the Exchange’s Washington office at the Pentagon, where he worked alongside his former Andrews co-worker, Bob Ellis.
In 1998, White returned to Europe to serve as the general manager of the Spangdahlem Exchange. In early 2001, he became the GM at the Ramstein/Kaiserslautern Military Community Exchange. By the end of the decade, Ramstein/KMCC would be the largest Exchange in the world.
“The day 9/11 happened, I had arranged to meet the deputy CE commander,” White said. “We were driving around and looking at all the facilities. At that time, we were talking about the idea of the KMC. We were working the plans and working on approvals to start that construction project. While we were looking at the building on the Vogelweh side, we heard about the attacks. He said, ‘Bob, I’ve got to take you back and drop you off, and then I’ve got to go.’”
After nearly five years in Europe, White returned to the States in 2003 to become Fort Campbell GM. He wasn’t there very long.
“I was there maybe 90 days when I got a call from [Central Region SVP] Ed Von Trotha,” White said. “Ed is probably the person whose management style I’ve tried to mirror the most. He said ‘Bob, have you found a place to live yet?’ I said no, and he said, ‘Don’t do anything. I think I’ve got something for you.’”
Von Trotha brought White to Offutt AFB, where he was area manager for the Omaha area. Two years later, White became Western VP. White worked in Western for about a year before he moved to headquarters, where he was VP of hardlines for about a year.
“Again, I had some fabulous people around me,” White said. “My entire career had been in the field but it gave me an appreciation for what merchandising does. It strengthened me as a standards person because MD taught me that there has to be discipline in the things we do and the way we execute programs. It helped me make the transition to SVP a year later.”
A leadership legacy
While he was in MD, White took his first trip to Pacific Region. In South Korea, he met Jesse Martinez, who was a store manager at the time. Martinez made an impression.
When White became Eastern Region SVP in 2007, he asked to have Martinez moved to Eastern.
“He ended up coming into Fort Dix as a GM, and the rest is history,” White said. “We worked together for more than 12 years.”
Martinez, who became South East Region VP in 2016 and is now the Pacific Region SVP, will bring things full circle when he takes over as Eastern SVP after White’s retirement.
Martinez is not the only current SVP who had worked in Eastern Region under White. Ronny Rexrode, now Western Region SVP, started at the Exchange in 2013 as an Eastern Region VP and had another regional VP term in the region from 2018 to 2020.
Rebecca Santee had worked in several Eastern Region roles, including regional VP, before she was named Central Region SVP in 2023.
Amanda Hartfield, current North East Region VP, will become Pacific Region SVP when Martinez moves to Eastern.
White himself has been Eastern Region SVP for 18 years.
“We don’t tend to leave people in a job that long,” White said. “But the benefit is that there’s continuity in the operations. I’ve been able to get things done over that period of time. There will be continuity after I leave. Jesse can change things if he wants, but I’m leaving him with a plan. The longevity has given me that.
“I always wake up saying, ‘How can I continue to push things forward?’,” White continued. “I’ve never settled for the status quo. I hear people say, ‘Bob, you’re 70 years old and you’re still on your game.’ Well, yeah. That’s how I was raised. That’s how I’ve always worked. How do I make it better, not just for our customers, but how do I make it better for our people?”
Retirement plans
White says that in retirement, he plans to spend more time with his family.
“My plans are to be a better husband, a better granddad and a better father,” he said. “I just want to be better. I’m looking forward to being able to do more things. Just this past week, I joined my community’s men’s golf association. I’ve watched guys play from my office window and thought, ‘I wish I could be out there.’ Now I can.”
White’s daughter married a Marine who spent about 11 years on active duty. “She picked up that military lifestyle and moved from California to Okinawa to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina until he was medically discharged,” White said.
“All of our children have the same kind of work ethic that my wife and I have,” White said. “What family serving family means is doing your best to make things better for other people. Don’t be satisfied with the status quo. If you’re not constantly challenging yourself, challenging your team to be better, then you’re missing the boat. You’re going to come up short and you’re going to have regrets. I don’t have any regrets.”
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