Born Mary Laidley Mort, great granddaughter of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and daughter of John Laidley Mort, on March 27, 1912, Mary was educated at Fort Street Girls' College where she studied Fine Art.

She married Rupert White in 1932 and moved to rural NSW where she had four children whilst continuing to paint and design. In 1950 she commenced a career as a freelance designer.

Her many commissions included the interior of the first Holden car; the Senate Conference Room, The University of Sydney; Australian Medical Association Conference Room; office of James Fairfax.

In 1951 she became a foundation member of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia (SIDA) and was elected President of SIDA from 1962-67 and 1968-71. In 1961 she established the Mary White School of Art in Edgecliff where she gathered together a number of prominent artists and designers (Brian Dunlop, Robert Klippel, Fay Bottrell, John Olsen, Peter Travis amongst others) to teach and to develop the design profession in Australia.

Her interests were wide and varied but she was invariably concerned with social and community issues throughout her life. She was a foundation member of the Sydney Arts Foundation established to oppose the Sydney City Council (SCC) which was proposing to demolish the Queen Victoria Building. She made a detailed proposal to convert the building into a centre for the arts which was not successful but these activities secured a commitment from the SCC not to demolish the building.

Mary was also an active member of the community group involved in the attempts to retain Jorn Utzon as the architect for the Sydney Opera House. In 1971 she was appointed Craft Advisor on Aboriginal Projects to the Crafts Council of Australia. She accepted a commission from the Australia Council for the Arts and the Office of Aboriginal Affairs through the Crafts Council to develop craft industries in Indigenous communities throughout the country where traditional crafts had died out.

In 1976 she was appointed senior Community Adviser at Dubbo, NSW, where she was involved in welfare work for Aboriginal people. She visited the Solomon Islands for the World Crafts Council in 1978 and 1979 for the South Pacific Commission.

Also in that year she commenced to build a house for herself on her son's property at Goonoo, doing all of the work apart from the framing and the electrical wiring.

Mary died after a short illness in October 1981 aged 69. Of her four children, Edmond and Jonathan live in rural NSW whilst Laidley and Deborah are deceased.

Harry Stephens
Faculty of the Built Environment
University of New South Wales