By Ann Cipperly
While Loring White endured challenges at a young age, he achieved his goals. He worked hard to purchase the business where he worked, significantly expanding the company. In their desire to help others, Loring and his wife, Debbie, were honored this summer for their generous donation to Jacksonville State University. They also gave a substantial donation to the Mayo Clinic for a new cancer clinic, which will provide Carbon Ion Therapy, the first of its kind in North America.
Loring grew up in Prattville where he had a love of sports throughout his school years. During a difficult family situation in high school, he became homeless his senior year. His coach and mentor, Dan Washburn, made sure he had somewhere to stay.
When he graduated from Prattville High School, Loring received a football scholarship to Jacksonville State University. “Coach Washburn took me to Jacksonville,” Loring says, “and told me not to come back until I graduated.
“For the next four years, the Washburns would call and invite me to their home for holidays or anytime I was not in school. Coach taught me that my integrity was important and to maintain good character.”
After he graduated from Jacksonville State in 1978, Loring went to work as an assistant coach at Jefferson Davis High School in Montgomery. While they won the state championship that year, the head coach, Billy Livings, told him to get a job in sales as there was not a lot of money in coaching.
Loring went to work at Capitol Business Equipment, Inc. now known as CBE, in Montgomery, selling cash registers, adding machines and typewriters. It was straight commission work and some weekly expense paychecks of $40 each, but that was more than he was making in college.
“One day I was sitting around thinking about football practice,” Loring says, “and how many hours a day we practiced college football. College is different than high school as we practice when the coach decides, and it was more about winning ball games and developing players. I went there as a young kid and left as a young man.
“They taught us that we could win championships if we outworked our opponents. We were going to have to spend more time doing agility training. Coach (Bear) Bryant at Alabama was setting the standards, and it was by being rough and tough, mean and having agility. If you outworked your opponents, you could beat them in the fourth quarter.”
Loring decided that he was going to take the next four years as a straight commission salesman and outwork all his competitors. “It was the beginning of success there,” he says. “I really enjoyed walking out the door with the orders as my competitors were walking in to call on them. I already had the order and the check, and I was leaving because I got there early.
“I get up early every day of the week at 4:30, and I try to work 12 hours a day. You have a choice. You can get up in the morning to see the world wake up, or you can stay up in the afternoon, see the sun set and the world go to bed. I chose to see it wake up every morning.”
In 1982, he purchased half the company with the money he made at CBE. By 1990, Loring bought the other half of the company.
Loring took the company from a little city-wide office equipment company to a state, regional and national integrator company. He sold mainly to the major oil companies and convenience store chains, and sold point-of-sale, security, camera and networking systems.
He then assisted in pioneering paying at the pump and hooked up the gas console to the cash register. “We got into credit card processing at the pumps,” Loring says, “and next thing we knew, we were bigger than we were the day before. We became the leading company in integrating systems to convenience store chains.”
In 2021, he was approached by a private equity company to purchase 100 percent of the stock. He was able to own 15 percent of the new larger company, OWL Services. The company is the nation’s leading supplier for approximately 85,000 convenience stores, supplying them with point-of-sale, surveillance, dispensers, tanks, compliance, construction and electric charging stations.
When Loring sold the company, the Whites searched for a charity or cause where they could help others. They had befriended the CFO of the Mayo Clinic through his son Daniel, who is autistic. Since the Whites attend the Kentucky Derby every year, a friend who knew Daniel called them to place a $20 bet for the child, as he was interested in horse racing.
Daniel’s father was grateful and asked them to call him if he could ever be of service. Later, the Mayo Clinic helped save Loring’s life after a heart attack in 2018, thanks in part to Daniel, horse racing and a $20 bet.
Loring was coming out of surgery at East Alabama Medical Center and going to ICU when he saw Debbie talking on the phone. “Before I got out of the hospital,” he says, “I was signed up to go to the Mayo Clinic the following week. East Alabama Medical Center saved my life, and the Mayo Clinic cleaned it up. They worked together treating me.
“Debbie and I decided to help the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., because they could help more people than any other place we knew. I have met so many who had chemo, and it was terrible. By helping Mayo with this new clinic, people can have Carbon Ion Therapy that targets cancer cells without harming the other cells. This was our largest donation. The clinic is currently under construction.”
“With us being involved with Mayo, we will be able to be a blessing to others,” Debbie adds.
The Whites also made a generous donation to Jacksonville State University. The university honored the couple this summer by naming the athletic complex, “The Loring and Debbie White Football Complex.” The Whites also donated to other places as Loring graciously helped those who had helped him.
These days, Loring and Debbie enjoy life at Shady Side Farm, a rustic heart-pine home in Five Points, near Lafayette, where they enjoy having their six grandchildren visit. In the spacious sunroom, Loring overlooks the countryside to see horses at the fence. He spends a day or two a week with his former coach and mentor, Dan Washburn.
Loring shares his rules for success with eight words from Thomas Edison. They are “work hard, stick to it, use common sense.”
“I incorporated that every day at my company,” he says, “and every employee had to remember those eight words. All our trainers told employees that I would ask them to tell me the eight words for success.
“If I had to add anything to it today, it is ‘show up,’ because nobody wants to work,” Loring says. “Those eight words are what I taught my employees. They are what I believe in along with integrity and character.”
