Charles Street Chats: Q&A with Dennis White
Dennis White is a security ambassador supervisor with more than three decades of experience at The University of Baltimore. He came to the University in 1993 and has held different roles. In his current position, he gets to be, and often is, the friendly face greeting students, staff and other visitors to the Robert L. Bogomolny Library and UBalt Student Center. When he’s off duty, he’s a music man, traveling for different gigs where he can showcase his vocal and drumming talents. He also enjoys landscaping and raising and watching roller pigeons, a type that has an ability to tumble and roll in the air. He hopes to focus more on the latter, a hobby from his childhood, when he retires.
Q: What brought you to UBalt?
A: Well, I had a friend that kind of brought me. I was actually working as assistant director in purchasing down at the Marriott, and I just wanted to change and try something different. They [UBalt] were hiring at security, so I said, let me just try that out. And I’ve been here ever since.
Q: What's a favorite memory of your time at The University of Baltimore?
A: One of my favorite times is when I first started working here. I had got an audition to go on tour as a drummer. I was here no more than two months, and they granted me the leave of absence, and then I got my job back. I thought that was one of the neatest things ever. I'm like, wow, I could still have my job. So, then I was like, OK, I think I’m going to stick around for a while. I think I'm going to like this. Then it happened again in 2002. I got to go on tour as a singer with a group called the Basement Boys to Spain and London. I was granted another leave of absence. By that time, I was doing something different than security. I was driving the shuttle for the students, for at least 15 years at that time, and then again, I was just so overwhelmed, I'm liking this. So I've been here ever since.
Q: Tell us about the different jobs you've had in your time here.
A: The first one was just regular security, just patrol, checking IDs of people coming into the buildings and stuff like that. Then the second one was parking enforcement. That's citation writing for people not parking properly in the garages or wherever. And the third one was the shuttle driver for the school. That's what I did for 15 years. And then I did special details for the president. Then I went back to doing patrol, patrolling buildings for all the shifts. I worked all shifts, so pretty much I've seen everything. My favorite shift is 7 to 3—that's the early shift—because you’ve still got the rest of the day. I use the weekends to drum with lot of different people. Drum and sing. I play with different groups: R&B, we have a jazz group, then we do some gospel, as well.
WATCH: Dennis shares about his hobbies, life as a musician
Q: How long have you been a musician?
A: I started playing drums at the age of 4, but I really started getting serious, I guess, around the age of 15, when I first went to Dunbar High School. That’s when I really started wanting to take music very seriously. I started playing in the jazz band and the marching band and all that kind of stuff.
Q: Can you tell us about a concert or a performance you attended and loved?
A: Oh, one that I really appreciated was, this is probably in the late 80s, early 90s, I had a chance to be sound engineer for Jean Carne. She was a jazz singer. She was very well known, beautiful voice, and I actually did the sound for her. This was years ago. I want to say it was in Columbia. It blew me away. She was a big-time artist, and I got to do the sound for her. So, I thought that was really neat.
Q: Do you have a song you like to play the most?
A: Some of my own stuff, because I write and produce my own music as well. I like all kinds of music. But I pretty much like the Latin flavors because of the different styles; the rhythms are always moving. I like up tempo music more so than I like a lot of slow music. I like stuff with all the energy.
What Charms Us
We end all of our Charles Street Chats with the same question: What do you love most about Baltimore? Here’s Dennis’ answer.
I’ve been here all my life. People think it's a big city, but it's really a small city. Everybody knows everybody. So, if you know one person, that person will know this person that knows somebody that knows you. It’s like a small family.