Kirby White, In Memorial & Appreciation
1938 – 2026

Burlington Associates in Community Development is saddened to report the loss of our friend and colleague, Kirby White, who died at his home in Cambridge, New York on June 7, 2026. He was a teacher, writer, wilderness paddler, and thoughtful advocate for community land trusts. The books, manuals, and newsletters that he edited and co-authored for the Institute for Community Economics in the 1980s and 1990s helped to lay the foundation for the early growth and later proliferation of CLTs in the United States.

Kirby served as the overall editor for The Community Land Trust Handbook, published by Rodale Press in 1982.From 1983 to 1996, he conducted most of the interviews and penned most of the articles that appeared in the Institute’s newsletter, Community Economics. In 1998, he oversaw production of the first video about CLTs, Homes & Hands: Community Land Trusts in Action.

His most impactful and enduring contribution to the CLT movement may prove to be The Community Land Trust Legal Manual. The first edition was published in 1991. Kirby coordinated the lawyers and practitioners who drafted its chapters and served as the publication’s editor. He played the same roles in producing revised and expanded editions of the Manual in 2002 and 2011.

Kirby did not merely write about CLTs; he lent them a hand. Beginning in 1996, he served as the Institute’s Director of Technical Assistance. In that role, he helped the Institute to win a series of grants from HUD to improve the proficiency of CLTs. Much of that money was used to hire a newly formed consulting cooperative, Burlington Associates in Community Development, to evaluate the TA needs of dozens of CLTs throughout the country and to assist in strengthening them. But, in some cases, Kirby preferred to provide technical assistance himself. The Sawmill CLT in Albuquerque, New Mexico was one of his favorites.

After leaving the Institute, Kirby worked with the Albany CLT and the Albany Community Loan Fund in New York. He also served on the board of Equity Trust, a national nonprofit promoting alternative structures for the ownership of lands used for agriculture or forestry. In 2009, under the auspices of Equity Trust, heauthored Preserving Farmland for Farmers: A Manual for Those Working to Keep Farms Affordable.

In later years, he served on the board of the Honduras Community Support Corporation and assisted Fundacion Eco Verde Sostenible (FECOVESO), a regional land trust founded by his wife, Nola White. FECOVESO is a specialized CLT that acquires and holds parcels of land surrounding water sources that serve small mountain communities in northwest Honduras.

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Kirby’s obituary can be found at: https://www.gariepyfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/kirby-white

A fuller description of Kirby’s many contributions to the CLT movement can be found in Reweaving the Tapestry of Tenure, a collection of interviews published in 2023 by Terra Nostra Press. Chapter Three is entitled: “Kirby White: The Writer Who Polished the Message and Enhanced the Practice of Community Land Trusts.”