Jerry White

Feb 17, 2004 10:32 AM EST

Jerry White is the president and CEO of The Navigators and is responsible for its worldwide operation of more than 3,550 staff members in the U.S. and 95 foreign countries. Dr. White has been on numerous radio and television shows and is booked regularly as a speaker at various retreats, churches, and similar venues. He has a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Washington, a master's in astronautics from The Air Force Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in astronautics from Purdue University. He served as a mission controller at Cape Kennedy, served in the Air Force, and is retired as a major general from the Air Force Reserves. He has authored several books including “Honesty, Morality, and Conscience,” “The Powe and Commitment,” “Dangers Men Face,” and “Making Peace with Reality.”

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A Brief History of the Navigators

The ministry of The Navigators began in the 1930's through the call of God to a young Californian, Dawson Trotman. He began to teach high school students and local Sunday school classes. Then in 1933, he and his friends began to extend their work among sailors in the U.S. Navy.

Many hours were spent with individual sailors in Bible study, Scripture memorization and prayer with an emphasis on each teaching another what he had learned. By the end of World War II, thousands of men on ships and bases around the world were learning the principles of spiritual multiplication.

At the same time, the high school students whose lives Dawson had touched went on to reach out to others around them in Southern California. Today, more than sixty years later, Navigators minister not only in the military and with students on college campuses, but in the marketplace with businessmen and women, among homemakers, ethnic groups, international students, in countries around the world ... wherever there are people who need Christ.

The Navigators was incorporated in California in 1943. The Navigator headquarters was transferred to Colorado in 1953 when we obtained the Glen Eyrie property in Colorado Springs. In Colorado Springs, we maintain the Glen Eyrie Conference Center and NavPress as well as our administrative offices. A few miles away is Eagle Lake Camp.

Internationally, Dr. Jerry White is general director of The Navigators, of which the U.S. Navigators are a part. Mr. Alan Andrews is the U.S. director, working with a National Leadership Team that oversees the U.S. Navigator ministries.

The Navigators is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. Navigator staff and ministries are supported through gifts from individuals, churches, corporations, and foundations.

The collegiate ministry is one of the oldest parts of The Navigators, tracing its roots to the University of Nebraska, where a ministry was begun in the 1950's. Today, Navigator staff work on approximately 75 campuses across the United States. The Navigators have been active on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1985 as an officially sanctioned student organization.