Gene White, 63, dies after metal ball falls off flagpole
wazzzy
A metal ball atop a St. Paul Perkins flagpole fell more than 60 feet
Wednesday and killed repairman Gene White, who spent two decades
ensuring American flags had a place to wave.
White, a 63-year-old small business owner, was fixing the flagpole at
the Perkins near University and Snelling avenues, one of the city's
busiest intersections, when the ball hit him on the head and knocked
him unconscious.
Paramedics rushed White to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, but the Oak
Grove man died a few hours later from a crushed skull, family members
said.
"It was just a freak accident," said wife Joan White. "A freak
thing (for the ball) to come down right in that place, right there
where he was standing.
"It shouldn't have happened. He has done this hundreds of times."
Gene White, who owned Twin Cities Flag Source Inc. with his wife Joan,
has worked on the flagpole at 1544 W. University Ave. for many years,
said Vivian Brooks, a Perkins spokeswoman. The flag hadn't been going
up and down the pole properly when Gene White was called in, Brooks
said.
Gene White had been working on the Perkins pole since the day before. A
cable that ran from a winch inside the base of the pole to a pulley
located inside the hollow aluminum ball at the top had become tangled,
Joan White said. Gene White removed and repaired the cable and winch,
and was finishing the work Wednesday, his wife said.
The accident happened about 1:35 p.m. It wasn't clear what caused the
ball to fall. The ball, known as a finial, appeared to be aluminum and
weighed about 10 pounds, a firefighter said.
Gene White died at the hospital about 4 p.m., his family said.
Gene and Joan White were the sole employees of the family business,
which Gene founded in 1983 in Roseville, before moving to Oak Grove in
1988. The business dealt mostly in the maintenance and repair of
flagpoles for clients such as Wells Fargo and TCF banks, as well as and
3M.
"He was a self-starter, a self-motivator," said son Lance White, of
Inver Grove Heights. "He was out there 24 hours a day, sometimes."
Though the Whites also repaired American flags and hand-designed other
flags, Joan White said the business would now be forced to close.
"He's the only one that can do it (the field repair work). He was
the hands-on guy," she said. "It was just us. Just the two of
us."
Lance White lamented that the accident occurred the day before flags
were to be raised, after being lowered for 30 days for President Gerald
Ford's death.
"He loved his customers. He was very proud to have built it up from
nothing," Joan White said. "Now, there's no one to do it."
Gene White used to own a restaurant in Lake St. Croix Beach, Minn.,
before growing tired of the restaurant industry, and noticing an open
niche market for the care and repair of flags and poles. He grew up and
graduated from high school in New Richmond, Wis.
A St. Paul woman driving east on Snelling Avenue saw the ball hit White
and called 911.
"It came down so fast and hit him," said the woman, who wouldn't
give her name. "I've never seen anything like it. I cried for at
least 10 minutes afterward."
Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators
were at the scene following the accidentafterward. It wasn't
immediately clear whether Gene White should have been wearing head
protection, said James Honerman, a state OSHA spokesman.