David Green

David was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on May 18, 1931, the seventh of eight children of Howard and Grace Gardiner Green. He passed from this life on May 25, 2010, in Lakewood, Ohio. David was singled out as the 'smart one' among his siblings, and graduated from Union College in Schenectady, new York, in 1955. He went on to earn a PhD in nuclear physics in 1961 at what was then Case Institute of Technology, working on the betatron under W. H. Voelker. David decided he did not wish to work for the US Government in nuclear physics with the probability of being involved in weapons development. He was offered and took a job with General Electric in research. After some years in a lab he realized that he really didn't like the isolation there and would prefer to work in manufacturing. He moved into product development engineering and was a key part of the development of major flash products for photography that the world came to know as flip flash, and later on products like MR16, known now as halogen lighting. David always had a desire to work with other cultures and when the chance came he was the key engineering leader for establishing the joint venture with Tungsram in Hungary. He then worked in Lighting International and was instrumental in setting up the Korea joint venture with GE. Next he worked on the GE lighting joint venture with China. David moved to China to create a GE lighting research group in Jiading at that time a remote town outside Shanghai. He was the founding leader and key driver in creating and building this lighting research team that later went on to become the GE China research center in Pudong. Very few people in the late 1980s had the vision to see what China could become over the next thirty years. Throughout his life Dave never stopped being a mentor to hundreds of young people both in and outside of GE. His legacy is in the hundreds of people hired and coached throughout many of the GE businesses as well as other major companies around the world. His retirement in 1998 and return to Cleveland did not end David's work with the people he had hired. He continued to maintain contact with many of them all over the world. They did not represent the totality of his interest in people in other lands, however. David and his wife Connie spent many months in repeated visits to Thailand over the past several years and became both important benefactors and dearly-loved friends of the orphans and staff at The Rustic Pathways Children's Home in Mae Sariang. David taught, encouraged, loved, and laughed with the children who call this place home, and was regarded as both an adopted father and an honored teacher by everyone at the facility. David and Connie poured their energy and enthusiasm into the lives of these children, and their love for them was perhaps only exceeded by the love the children feel for them. David's birth family was part of a small fundamentalist Christian church founded by his grandfather. As David grew he found it could not answer his probing questions, and he left it. Around the age of fifty he discovered that the wisdom and practices of AA filled a void in his life. In the last decade of his life Connie introduced him to the Religious Society of Friends where he found a loving community that accepted him and his questions. He married Connie in 2002 and joined the Cleveland Friends Meeting. David was married three times. His second wife, now deceased, had four teen-aged children from a previous marriage. David loved them and provided an anchor through their chaotic teen years. They continue to look to him as a beloved friend. His third wife, Connie McPeak, brought two more step-children upon whom David lavished his love and wisdom. Ten step-grandchildren have enjoyed his delight and love. Survivors include his wife, Connie; step-children Jamie Hurd, Jeffrey Hurd Arlene, Jennifer Hurd, Jon Hurd Laurel; Robert McPeak Amelia, and Katherine McPeak-Man David. He is also survived by 10 step-grandchildren: Madeleine Kaczmaroswski, TJ, Benjamin, Owen, Anna, Jordan, Kate, and Megan Hurd; Nate McPeak, and Olivia Man. His brother Robert Green, and sisters Lois Sununu, Priscilla Hayes, and Althea Monroe also survive him. The family prefers that those who would like to make a contribution in David's name send it to Rustic Pathways Foundation David Green Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 1150, Willoughby, OH 44096. http://www.rusticpathways.org/d_green/memorial_scholarship.html A memorial Service will be held at Cleveland Friends Meeting, 10916 Magnolia Drive, University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, on Sunday, June 6 at 5:00 P.M. Child care will be provided.


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