Aces of Trades: White keeps legacy of R & M Bakery alive
NEWARK – He was always busy, but he never knew where the road would take him.
“As kid, I was very active,” Sam White said. “The scenario of leaving the house after breakfast and coming home in time for dinner was very true for us. There was always someone riding their bike around the block or putting together a neighborhood game of some kind. I wanted to work outdoors as a park ranger. But I had no plans as a kid of being a baker.”
Well, today White owns R & M Bakery.
“My title is partner,” he said. “But without the staff, none of this would be possible. They do the early morning work and keep the shop running until my wife Kristi and I can get here. Kristi does most of the cake decorating, pepperoni rolls, dinner rolls, bakes pies, and pays the bills. I do the deliveries, make donuts and enjoy a laugh with the customers when they come in for the goodness.”
White grew up in Newark, graduated from Newark High School in 1992 and earned a degree in business administration from Mt. Vernon Nazarene University in 2002.
In 1996 White started working at Hendrickson Auxiliary Axle Systems in Hebron. He’s now the company’s business analyst — and continues to work there full-time. But in the 1990s, he noted, “We had 3 babies in the house and expenses were tight.”
“I had a friend who knew Randy Miner, then-owner of R & M Bakery,” White said. “I began coming in at 3 a.m. to make donuts and then make deliveries to the gas stations in Newark, Heath, Hebron and Pataskala before I went to my full-time job. I did that for a couple years and then business slowed, and Randy told me he couldn’t afford to keep me on. I told him I would keep doing it for no pay because I enjoyed being here and didn’t want to lose my connection to the place. So that began 18 years of filling in when he went on vacation, helping out around the holidays and using the bakery to play around with bread recipes and make donuts when I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night.”
The name R & M, by the way, came about when Randy Miner bought Hartshorn’s Bakery in 1986.
“He changed the name to R and M,” White said. “R stood for Randy and M stood for Misty, his wife at the time. Then in 2021 Randy passed away. On Oct 26, 2022, Patty, his wife of 28 years, sent me a text and asked if I was ready to buy the bakery. Randy and I had an arrangement that when he decided to retire, he would sell me the bakery – that is, if I was still young enough.
“Kristi and I decided to leave the name the same,” he said, “so Randy would still be a part of the bakery a while longer.”
White completed the purchase of the building and business in July 2023.
“Owning the bakery has been a goal for Sam for over 23 years,” his wife, Kristi, said. “So when Patty approached us a year ago about purchasing the bakery it was a definite, ‘Yes.’ Sam has a vision of what this bakery will be, and can be, for the community. We’re working toward making that vision happen.”
White and his staff are busy during the holiday season. The deadline for orders to be guaranteed by Christmas is Tuesday.
“I knew from the first day I walked in the bakery that someday I wanted to own it,” White said. “Not just own a bakery, I wanted to own R & M Bakery. It’s the oldest bakery in Newark and probably Licking County. The building is over 100 years old and once served Newark as a fire station when horses pulled the fire wagon.”
“This bakery,” he summed, “has a rich history of serving Newark as Gleason’s Bakery, Wilson’s Bakery, Hartshorn’s Bakery and R & M Bakery. Each owner has passed down something to the next. I want to keep that tradition alive and keep serving our community the goodness they’ve come to love.”
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs — whether they're unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at advocate@newarkadvocate.com.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Aces of Trades: Sam White keeps legacy of R & M Bakery alive
