Idaho's Democratic Congressman from the first district from 1963 to 1966, Compton Ignatius White, Jr., was born in Spokane, Washington, December 19, 1920. He was the son of Compton I. White, who was born in Louisiana and, as his son was to write in an article for the Centennial edition of the Lewiston Morning Tribune, arrived in Idaho Territory on July 1, 1890, just three days before the territory became a state; his mother was Josephine Elizabeth (Bunn) White.

Young Compton attended Clark Fork, Idaho, High School before moving to Washington, D.C., where his father was Idaho's congressional representative from the lst District. He graduated from Central High School in Washington, then attended George Washington University from 1938-1939. From 1939 to 1942 he studied mining engineering at the University of Idaho. In 1941 he became a flight engineer for Boeing Aircraft in Seattle. In 1946 he became manager of his father's mining operations and also took over the management of the family ranch in Clark Fork. On November 19, 1948 he married Florence Eulalia Waddell. They are the parents of six children, 5 sons and a daughter.

Compton White, Jr., began his political career at the age of eight when he attended the 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas as an honorary alternate delegate. While living in Washington, D.C., he worked as a Congressional House Page. In 1962 he was elected to Congress as Representative from the first district of Idaho, succeeding Gracie Pfost who made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate. In his telegram of congratulations his opponent, Erwin Schwiebert, said "Congratulations on your victory and on achieving your ambitions to follow in your father's footsteps as a congressman from Idaho." Compton White, Sr. served in the 73rd-81st Congresses with the exception of the 80th (1933-46; 1949-50). White was re-elected for a second term in 1964. While serving in Congress he was a member of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, sitting also on its sub-committees on Mines and Mining, Indian Affairs, Irrigation and Reclamation, and Public Lands. He also served on the Committee on Banking and Currency, and its sub-committees on Internal Finance and Domestic Finance. In 1963 he attended the Geneva, Switzerland meetings of both the United Nations Committee on Tungsten (October 28-29) and the Seventh Session of the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (November 4-8) as a Congressional advisor to the U.S. Delegation. In 1965 and 1966 he was a member of the Public Land Law Review Commission.

In 1966 White lost his bid for a third term to James McClure; he was one of many Democrats who were defeated that year. He remained in Washington for a year as a consultant to the Treasury Department, then returned to his Clark Fork ranch. He ran against McClure in 1968, but again he lost. He served on the Clark Fork City Council from 1967 to 1976, and in 1974 made an unsuccessful attempt to gain a seat in the State Senate. After retiring from the city council he concentrated on the management of his ranch, "watching the trees grow taller, the cattle grow fatter and the land grow in value." (Lewiston Tribune, December 25, 1977).