In Memory of David W. Green
David W. Green of New Glarus, WI passed away unexpectedly on June 13, 2019, in Passau, Germany, while on a cruise on the Danube River with his wife, Susan (LeVan). Dave was born in Beckley, West Virginia, on March 13, 1944, to Bernard and Alberta Green.
He attended Marsh Fork High School, earned a B.S. and M.S. in Wood Science from West Virginia University and a PhD in Wood Science from Syracuse University of New York (SUNY). While in college, Dave served in the U.S. Army Reserves for 5 years. He moved to Canada to work for Domtar on special research projects on paper and lumber. In the evenings, Dave completed his PhD dissertation, earning his PhD in early 1978. The latter part of 1978, he accepted a teaching professorship at Virginia Polytechnical Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia. In 1980 he moved to Madison to work as a Research Engineer at the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL). At FPL Dave was instrumental in developing assigned engineering properties for lumber grades of softwood species. Dave retired from FPL in 2004 and volunteered at Donald Park and Green’s Prairie Cemetery, Wisconsin. Genealogy was his hobby and he wrote several genealogy books, not only on his and Susan’s families but also on families of small rural cemeteries in York Township in Green County, Wisconsin (Out of the Mountains, The Families of Green’s Prairie Cemetery, and The Stories of the Stones). Dave received many awards throughout his life – earning Eagle Scout Rank, the USDA Superior Science Award, the Forest Products Society Wood Engineering Life Time Achievement Award, and the Secretary of Agriculture’s Distinguished Service Team Award.
Dave is survived by his wife Susan, daughter Cathy (Tim) Davidson, son Daniel (Tammi), daughter Virginia, stepson Tim (Kristina) LeVan, and stepdaughter Katherine (Michael) Hansen, 7 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, Bernard and Alberta, as well as his former wife Mary Lou (Hull). Memorials are suggested to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for research on Parkinson’s disease. An online memorial with guestbook is available at www.bealfumneralhomes.com