Rod and Becky White met in high school and have been a couple ever since. After high school, Rod served as an LDS missionary in his mother’s hometown of Helsinki, Finland. Rod and Becky went on to graduate from college, Rod from the University of Utah and Becky from Brigham Young University.

Rod is the son of Quentin and Marja-Riitta White and grew up on their family farm in Highland. Becky is the daughter of Marlin and Donna Barnes. Rod and Becky made their first home in Lehi on the farm where Becky’s father grew up on the Barnes farm. Both developed a strong connection to the family heritage while living there. Becky’s grandparents have deep roots in Lehi. She is the granddaughter of Harold and Margaret Barnes and Don and Betty Fowler. Both couples were pillars of the Lehi community and instilled in Becky a deep love of Lehi and community service.

After graduating college, Rod began his career in logistics and fulfillment and currently works as Senior Vice-President of Operations for Maersk. He oversees shipping facilities throughout the Midwest and Western regions. Rod loves working with people from all walks of life and enjoys making lifelong connections and learning from his coworkers. He loves the outdoors and spent many summers as a child traveling the country with his family visiting historical sites. He learned woodworking from his father and has used those skills to create incredible projects for himself and his family. He is an avid snow and water skier and enjoys passing that passion on to his children.

Becky began her dream career as a teacher at Lehi High School. She taught business and marketing courses and started one of the state’s first sports marketing programs in 1997. Her sports marketing courses were instrumental in organizing events such as the annual Mascot Bowl, Jazz Bear basketball games, and the Bear Hugs for Kids Christmas shopping event. During the 15 years of the Mascot Bowl, White’s program raised enough money to send approximately 2000 local children on Christmas shopping trips with Santa and the Utah Jazz Bear. Her sports marketing program won numerous state and local awards and became the standard for other schools to follow. She taught at Lehi High School for 27 years and finished her career at Skyridge High School before retiring in 2019.

One of Rod and Becky’s favorite things to do was sit in the stands and cheer on Lehi’s athletes, including their children and others. They loved watching them succeed and being part of the Lehi community that supported them. Their daughter, Syd, was part of three Lehi Pioneer state championship teams. Rod watched his children play and coached them in baseball and softball. He spent many hours traveling the country with their travel ball teams. In his final year of coaching, he coached alongside his son, Riley. That year, their softball team placed third in the most prestigious national tournament, the highest placing a Utah team has ever achieved.

They always played a lot of baseball and softball during their summers and they have precious memories of great experiences and people they connected with through their children’s participation in high school and college sports.

The Whites are parents of four children and have seven grandchildren. Riley, Aly and Carley followed in Becky’s footsteps and became teachers, while Syd studied nursing and is currently completing her nursing degree. Family is most important to them and they enjoy spending time together every Sunday at what their children affectionately call their childhood home, “HQ.” They proudly call Lehi home and are honored to be recognized as one of the 2024 Lehi Heritage Days honorees.

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