Thomas White

Why PCH? Why were you interested in joining the PCH Board and working for affordable housing in Princeton?

My joining PCH was the result of being contacted by a fellow parishioner at St. Paul's who was a friend of people in leadership positions at PCH.  She thought my mix of experience and technical skills in architecture would be a good fit for PCH, and she felt that St. Paul's was under-represented at the time.  That was in the spring of 2016, I believe.  I was aware of the housing units at Princeton Community Village, Griggs Farm, and Elm Court, but knew nothing about the organization that created and operated them.  I was soon to learn quite a bit about PCH.

What is your professional background?

After living in Princeton for a couple of years, I had the good fortune to be hired as an architect/project manager in the Office of Physical Planning at Princeton University.  In all, I worked at the University for twenty-five years, with a twelve-year-long break in the middle to work in my own small practice doing, for the most part, very small projects.  Ultimately, I returned to the University, in the position of Preservation Architect in Facilities Operations.  I retired at the end of February 2020.  I left University employ about ten days before the University closed down due to the coronavirus epidemic.  Timing is everything.

How long have you been in the Princeton area?

My wife and I moved to Princeton in 1980.  We had lived in Lawrence Township for five years, not far from her parents and the house where she grew up.  She had somewhat reluctantly agreed to let me design and build a house for ourselves, and after several years we had found a piece of vacant land that we could afford, in (surprisingly) Princeton Township.  We rented a small apartment in a house in the Borough, which allowed me to be close to the architecture and engineering firm where I worked, and close to our property to allow us to work on the house project.  Nearly forty years later, we’re still working on the house, which we moved into in 1992.  Sadly, these days there is generally a greater need for maintenance than for making progress on the finishes in the house.  So it goes.

What are your hobbies and interests?

At St. Paul’s, I was a charter member of the parish’s Finance Committee, and served for nearly forty years.  I wasn’t there due to any financial expertise, but to advise on the upkeep of the buildings and grounds and to help with any construction projects that were undertaken.  I am now, at least nominally, a member of the parish Facilities Committee.

I was a member of the Princeton Township Historic Preservation Commission for ten years; after consolidation I served another five years on the municipality Commission.  I am on the municipality’s Construciton Board of Appeals.  Thankfully, the Building Department for the Town does an excellent job of guiding contractors through the construction process, so there are very few appeals to that particular board.   

Hobbies?  I guess house-building could be considered a hobby...