Frank Thomas Matthews White (1909–1971) was an Australian mining and metallurgical engineer and mineral science educator. His career included appointments in Australia, Fiji, Malaya, and Canada. An examination of White's career reveals steady progression from an initial technical focus on the goldfields of Western Australia, to the challenge of new mining enterprises in Fiji, to post-war rehabilitation of tin mining in Malaya, ultimately to encompass a broad appreciation of the complexities of the minerals industry as a whole, its human factors, and societal context. He applied these insights in developing innovative academic programs at the University of Queensland and at McGill University, referring to the spectrum as "the total environment of mining". To pursue this vision at McGill, in