A Friend Indeed

Host with the Most

Friendship is as important to Matt White as a roof over his head. In fact, when White—who is single—bought a spacious home on Florida’s southwest coast two years ago, he had his friends in mind. “I wanted them to come and enjoy themselves,” he says.

Every week, using a wheelchair-attached motorized rod and

Reunited in Chicago are friends (from left) Dave Neper, Rick Berry, Matt White and Dan Chancellor.

reel his friends crafted—based on his own design—White fishes with his buddies. He had to give up golf, his greatest passion, when he could no longer hold the clubs. White, 36, was diagnosed with ALS in January, 2000.

Since moving to Florida, White has played host to myriad friends and family. One chum, Dan Chancellor, has known White since their fraternity days in the 1980s at Butler University in Indianapolis. Says Chancellor, “Matt’s always been upbeat.”

Until 2003, White was a sales manager at Chicago’s alternative rock station, Q101. His former boss, Chuck DuCoty, now chief operating officer of NRG Media in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says White generated top revenues. “What strikes you about Matt is that he’s so serene about his fate. I would be raging at the gods, but he has an amazing spirit.”

More on Matt White Matt White, 38, was diagnosed with ALS in 2000. Since then, he's rallied support for ALS research through his Matt White Cure ALS Foundation, raising thousands of dollars for the Packard Center. His story appears here, but we thought readers might want to learn more about White’s approach to living with ALS. Click here for the complete interview.

A few years back, the station sponsored a benefit for White’s Cure ALS Foundation, which supports ALS research, including the Packard Center’s.

Saddened to hear his good friend was sick, Chancellor, a financial consultant in Indianapolis, decided to build on that event’s success. Last year, he and friends organized an ALS walk in Evansville, Indiana, raising $60,000 for ALS research.

Now Chancellor’s spearheading a golf tourney, set for October 5, outside Indianapolis. Former Vice President Dan Quayle will be there, providing a celebrity boost. Half the proceeds will benefit the Center.

Since his diagnosis, White has helped coordinate fund raisers for his foundation, totaling $100,000. Good times with friends sustain him, but now, White says, “we’re not afraid to talk about things young men don’t usually discuss—life, happiness, love and mortality.

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