Phyllis Ann Green

Of Arlington Heights

Phyllis Ann Green died early on the morning of January 12, 2022, nine days shy of her 79th birthday. The daughter of Charles and Ilene Hart, she was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on January 21, 1943, and grew up in Toledo, Ohio, attending DeVilbiss High School (into whose Hall of Fame she later was inducted) and graduating in 1961. At the University of Michigan, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in English in 1964 and a master’s degree in guidance counseling in 1965 and met her husband of 56 years, Raymond William Green, marrying him on August 21, 1965, and supporting him as he finished law school. They then lived together in Cincinnati, Ohio, until 1968, in the Niagara Falls, New York area, until 1982, and after that in Arlington Heights, Illinois. They had two sons, Charlie, born in 1971 (now a patent attorney in Oak Park, Illinois, married to Kristin and the father of Rebecca and Matthew), and Christopher, born in 1972 (now a law professor in Oxford, Mississippi, married to Bonnie and the father of Hadley, Hudson, Sebastian, and Naomi).

Phyllis was a widely-known educator and speaker. Phyllis deployed her energies in a series of loosely-related careers: as a guidance counselor for the public schools in Grand Island, New York; running an H&R Block tax-preparation office in Arlington Heights; supervising student teachers for Illinois State University; founding, running, and selling a small business, Novel Units, that published teacher’s guides for a literature-based approach to reading; and as a director of children’s ministries at the First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights. In 1990, she received an Ed.D. from Northern Illinois University, writing a dissertation on mentoring relationships and spending several years as one of the first regular users of Interstate 88 between Chicago and DeKalb.

During her "retirement" years, Phyllis volunteered with her church's Presbytery of Chicago, helping various churches across the Chicagoland region in addition to her home church. She also became involved with ministry to the Congo, meeting with missionaries in the Congo as well as U.S. legislators and helping to be a conduit for resources from across the Presbytery of Chicago to missionaries in Congo via the Congo Mission Network. Additionally, Phyllis and Ray made regular trips internationally, visiting countless countries on every continent except Antarctica.

Phyllis had an energetic personality that made its presence known in any conversation. She often said, “Ray married me so that he’d never have to talk again. Isn’t that right, Raymond?” She was enormously proud of her sons’ penchant for education (both with law degrees and graduate school) and loved to talk about the latest accomplishments of her six grandchildren. She loved to hear and talk about Rebecca’s latest artwork, Hadley’s latest math prizes, Matthew and Hudson’s latest computer projects, Sebastian’s latest baseball enthusiasms, and Naomi’s latest encounter with American Girl dolls. We miss her dearly.

In addition to her children and grandchildren, Phyllis is survived by her husband Raymond, her sister Janet Sparks (Bob), of Austin, Texas, and her brother James Hart, of Perrysburg, Ohio.

Visitation will be Friday, January 21, 2022 at Glueckert Funeral Home, 1520 N. Arlington Heights Road, Arlington Heights, IL 60004 from 3 PM until 6 PM and Saturday, January 22, 2022 at First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights, 302 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights, 60004 from 10 AM until the time of funeral service at 11 AM. Interment Memory Gardens.

The service will be live-streamed at https://firstpresah.org/experience/livestream/.

Funeral Information and condolences can be given at www.GlueckertFH.com or (847) 253-0168.