White was the son of the architect Stanford White. He attended St. Mark's School, Southboro, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard College in 1908, and in 1913 received his diploma from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, having worked in the atelier of Victor Laloux. He passed the next year as secretary to the American Ambassador to Italy. White saw military service as a naval aviator during the first World War, and immediately after served as a naval aide to President Woodrow Wilson in Rome, for which service the Italian government made him a Chevalier of the Crown of Italy.
Returning to America in 1919, White immediately entered the firm of McKim, Mead & White as a senior partner. The range of his work in architectural design is demonstrated by the subjects of the photographs of project that comprised his portfolio presented upon election to Academician: the National City Bank, 52 Wall Street, New York; Pennsylvania Railroad Station, Newark, New Jersey; Departmental Barracks, Governor's Island, New York; National Hotel, Havana; Girard Trust Offices, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Church of Our Lady Esperanza, New York; apartment building at 277 Park Avenue, New York; and the house of Mrs. Pierre Lorillard, Tuxedo, New York.
White was also an artist, writer and accomplished pianist. Among his publications were Sketches and Designs by Stanford White, 1921, and a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, 1948.
White again did military service during World War II, as a Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Naval Reserves and staff intelligence officer, Rome, and received the Italian Naval War Cross for Valor in 1946.
