Washington High School - Lens Yearbook (Portland, OR)

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Mr. Green lnconspicuous yet very much alive, on the third floor of Washington High School, lingers the memory of a man who walked the halls of fame. Students would find this cheerful, friendly gentleman busily working over his test tubes and acids and making chemistry as interesting and exciting for his students as he possibly could. Who was this man? Why none other than our own Mr. William V. Green, born in 1883 in Albany, New York. ln 1901 he was gradua- ted from Albany High School and worked for two years in a New York State Library as an assistant loan clerk. This library was rated one of the largest in the world prior to its destruction in 1911. In 1902 Mr. Green entered Harvard University where he began his career in sciences, specializing in chemistry. During the summers of his college years he worked at the New York State Library, the New York State Railroad Com- mission, and the New York State Civil Service Commission. While finishing his senior year at the University, Mr. Green published articles in the American Chemical Iournal and after graduation in 1906, spent a year in research in organic chemistry at his alma mater, and was appointed an assistant-instruc- tor of chemistry. ln 1908, much to the good fortune of Washington High School students, Mr. Green came to Portland and was appointed head of our chemistry de- partment, in what was then known as the East Portland High School. For several years he was actively interested in a professional chemistry company, doing analyzing, assaying, and manufacturing, and in making a careful study of science laboratory furniture and equipment, particularly for the teaching of chemistry. ln 1911 he married Gertrude P. Bomgardner, and in 1913 a son, Walter William Green, was born. Walter was graduated from Reed College and earned a Master of Arts degree at Stanford University. On many eastern trips, Mr. Green had the opportunity to observe the most desirable features of high school science rooms in New York City, Chicago, and other cities, and from them he designed several chemistry laboratories in the Portland high schools, among them being the chemical and biology laboratories at Iefferson and Lincoln. He outlined the plan for the chemical laboratory at Grant, in addition to the two in the old Washington building which was burned, and the one in the present building.

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During the first world war Mr. Green worked on a local draft board and served as a storekeeper at Hauser Shipyards. Then, for two years after the war had ended, he worked on the Readjustment Board. In 1920 he was elect- ed president of the Portland High School Teachers' Association and in 1925 chairman of the Science and Mathematics Section of the Oregon State Teachers' Association. He again worked as a storekeeper for two summers during World War II. Many students have said that they owed the start of their careers to Mr. Green and some of these are now among the most prominent scientists in the United States, their names being in America's Who's Who. Among them are Dr. Linus Pauling, professor of chemistry at California Institute of Technology since 1931 and a member of the National Academy of Science, Dr. Gerald Wendt, chemist, editor, author, and director of Science and Education at the New York World's Fair, Dr. Ioseph Bunnett, professor of Organic Chemistry at Reed College, Dr. Paul Hugh Emmett, professor of Chemical Engineering at Iohns' Hopkins University, and many others whose names cannot be listed. Mr. Green's friends feel keenly their loss in his death .... that a glory has departed from the earth . However, a new day is here, a new day in which someone else must shoulder the responsibilities and duties which Mr. Green has willingly carried for so many years.