The quietly spoken and modest artist had a good excuse - he was in hospital, he recalled this week.
Mr White, who is in his 60s, has ended his involvement with the classes.
The Government's cutting funding of community education was only part of the reason for his decision, although he said the community was going to lose by it. But it was time to "have a spell" from teaching.
When Mr White saw the position advertised, he thought it might be interesting and good experience, despite not having a background in teaching.
At the first two classes, the students knew more about colour mixing and the names of colours than he did.
But he sought advice from another artist so he could be "a jump ahead".
Mr White said he had learned more from his students than they learned from him and he had made a lot of friends.
With about 20 students each year, he had tutored "well over a hundred", with some returning for three to four years of tuition.
There was a lot of talent that came through the classes - "one or two are better than me, but I don't tell them" - and his job was to encourage and guide students in the way they wanted to paint, not the way he wanted to paint, he said.
"I could have turned out a lot of people that paint like me," he said.
Mr White and his twin brother, John, both painted from their primary school days.
He joined the North Otago Art Society about 40 years ago and would go to as many classes as he could and "learned the basics".
He enjoyed seeing some of his students move on to joining the art society.
He had been grateful for the support of his wife, Margaret, who could paint but preferred to pursue music and radio announcing on Heritage Radio.
