State Sen. Don White is retiring due to health issues at the end of February with two years left on his fifth term.

White, 69, whose 41st District includes eastern Butler County along with Armstrong, Indiana and part of Westmoreland counties, announced his retirement on the Senate floor Tuesday.

The Republican didn't mention his reason for retiring in his 15-minute address, which was recorded and posted on his Senate website and Facebook page, but Al Lindsay, Butler County Republican party chairman, said health issues are the reason White is stepping down.

“I understand he has some health issues that are legitimate. We're disappointed, of course, because we think he's a great senator. He's done a lot of good for voters,” Lindsay said.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman will schedule a special election to fill the remainder of White's term through 2020.

“I'm hopeful we can find a strong candidate to fill that seat. I'm sure we'll get a good candidate,” Lindsay said.

White has scheduled a news conference Wednesday morning at his Indiana office. He couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

“This is a day I knew was coming. I just didn't know when,” White said in his address to the Senate.

He said he had been considering retiring for about a year.

“When I came in here I was 50 years old, but I felt like I was 30 — full of energy. But now I'm 69 and I feel like I'm 89,” White said.

He said his first year in the Senate in 2001 was an eye-opening experience.

Most senators at the time were bald, white men over 62 years old who had served many years in office.

“It was like walking into a personal care home,” White said.

He said he didn't have any goals other than bringing attention to the district, but he didn't want to be put into a position in which he could enrich himself, his family or his friends and he didn't want to harm the Legislature.

In March 2001, his third month in office, he said Senate leaders approached him and told him they needed his support for a bill to increase legislators' pensions by 50 percent.

White responded, saying he promised his constituents that he wouldn't support a pay raise, he said. The leaders then told him to sit in the back and keep his mouth shut to avoid dissuading other members from supporting the measure, he said.

In 2003, his third year in office, he said he asked majority leaders for funding for a project in his district. He said he was told: “The jury is still out on you. You might be a one-hit wonder.”

He said the 2005 pay raise for lawmakers, judges and executive branch officials that the Legislature approved in an early morning vote will haunt him.

“That was an abomination that I'll take to my grave,” White said.

He said he didn't like politics before he won his first election.

“I feel I'm probably the most unlikely senator to ever sit in this chamber,” White said.

He said his only qualifications were that he was a voter, a veteran and successful businessman who “made six figures every year since the time I was 29 years old.”

He also recalled the death of his son, Ben, who died from injuries he suffered in a vehicle accident during the 1998 Memorial Day weekend.

“I went into a deep funk — a very dark place,” White said. He said he would sit for hours in dark rooms without talking to people.

Fourteen months later, he said he was called by a higher power to run for office so he could give back to the community.

“I've made great friendships, and I'm hopefully leaving here with no enemies,” White said.

White serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance. He is a member of the environmental resources and energy, labor and industry, law and justice, rules and executive nominations and state government committees. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority board of directors.