John M. Green

John Milton Green (Jack) of Austin and El Paso died on June 23, 2018, in Austin, 10 days after reaching his 104th birthday. He was born Clinton Abijah Childs on June 13, 1914, in Eustis, Florida, to True Woodman Childs II and Jesse Cooper Childs of Baxter Springs, Kansas.

Known as Diggie in his early years, he attended primary schools in Eustis. Then, following his older brother’s footsteps, he enrolled in Florida Military Academy in 1923. Two years later, he joined his brother at St. John’s Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin. After her divorce when Jack was about eight years old, his mother married Frederick Wilson Green of Clear Lake, Iowa. Describing his new father as a kind and generous man, Jack adopted the name John Milton Green, taking his new first and middle names from his maternal grandfather of Baxter Springs.

In 1928 the family moved to Roseburg, Oregon where they ran a tourist camp. Jack graduated from Roseburg High School at age 16, attended Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, for two years, and then attended the University of Missouri at Columbia, receiving his B.A. in journalism in 1935. At Roseburg High School, Jack played on the football, basketball, and baseball teams, not very skillfully as he later admitted, but he played tennis well, and was a member of the tennis team at Graceland College.

After graduation, Jack received first-hand lessons in the difficulty of finding a stable job during the Depression. The list of his attempted professions and jobs was not short. Right after graduation, he tried newspaper advertising in Garden City, Kansas, at $15 a week. After moving with his family to Phoenix, Arizona, he became a night clerk and also worked for a startup sports newspaper. He next tried selling insurance, drawn into the profession by a friend whom Jack claimed was a real insurance man.

In 1937, Jack was persuaded to move to El Paso, Texas, to try his hand at selling insurance there. Although not finding more customers, he met someone who was to change his life. Jack joined a social club called the Cave Men, whose purpose in life was to organize dances so as to meet girls. During one of these dances, on December 3, 1938, Jack caught a glimpse of a young lady whose name he later learned was Mary Bernice Carpenter. Maneuvering in her direction, he managed to step on the hem of her dress, and apologized profusely, and repeatedly. On October 21, 1939, in the chapel of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, they were married.

In the late 1930s, as World War II approached and needing to find a job to support his new family, he tried a variety of jobs, in both San Francisco and El Paso. He sold insurance once more, pumped gas for Chevron, and then got a job as a timekeeper at Fort Bliss in El Paso. He next worked for Standard Brands, selling and delivering coffee, tea and yeast out of a truck in El Paso and southern New Mexico. While in this job in early 1942, he contracted Malta Fever, apparently from drinking unpasteurized milk, an illness which disqualified him from joining the army as he desired to do. After a months-long recuperation, he joined the American Aluminum Company (Alcoa) in Phoenix as an extrusionist.

Following the conclusion of World War II, Jack and a co-worker started their own company, called Becker Green, distributing difficult to find consumer goods. Discovering that it could not support both owners, Jack gave up his part in the company and moved back to El Paso in late 1948.

In that decade, Jack and Mary had three sons: Stanley Cooper (1941), Richard Carpenter (1944), John Jr. (1946). In 1950 the family would be completed with the birth of a fourth son, Jeffrey Blanchard. On August 1, 1949, Jack went to work for El Paso Natural Gas Company (EPNG), in the Right-of-Way Department. Later, he moved to the Property Management Department and finally to El Paso Products Co. in Odessa to handle ad valorem taxes. He remained with EPNG and associated companies until his retirement in 1974 when he returned to El Paso.

These were busy years. In addition to employment and household responsibilities, Jack and Mary had their time taken up with an endless number of school activities and sporting events involving the four sons. Beyond this, Jack lent his efforts to community service, ranging from selling cokes at high school football games, to service on the vestry of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, to election as board member of the Ysleta Independent School District. One of his more unique accomplishments was the creation of the Hillcrest Country Club, a country club for regular working people that later became EPNG’s Hueco Tanks recreational facility.

Retirement brought cruises with Mary and the opportunity for serious study of the stock market, an activity he had begun at a less intensive pace in about 1950. There was also a lot of driving, with numerous visits to see their growing number of grandchildren.

In December 2008 Jack’s life took an unhappy turn when Mary died after a short illness. Having lost his life’s partner, in February 2011 he moved to a different city and took up residence in the Querencia retirement home in Austin, Texas. It was at Querencia, and at nearby St. Christopher’s Church (Austin), that Jack’s gift of making friends brought an unexpected measure of happiness. In the Querencia community, Jack was not deterred by the build-up of years, and he engaged in a number of activities, including skydiving at the age of 98. Jack was known for his sense of humor, and his abiding affection for his family and friends. He will be missed.

Jack was predeceased by his wife, Mary Carpenter Green and his brother True Woodman Childs III. He is survived by his four sons and their families: Stanley Cooper (Esther), Stanley Cooper Green Jr. (Jamie), Joseph E. Green (Faith), Clifford Childs Green (Garvin), Shanks Carpenter Green; Richard Carpenter Green (Clara “Tiggy”), Caroline Green (Peter Fitton), Richard Green (Barrett), Cooper Green (Erin); John Milton Green Jr. (Helen), Amanda Wilton-Green (David), Nancy Green-Perez (Adam Perez) and Emily Green (Rafael Urbina); and Jeffrey Blanchard Green. Jack is also survived by 15 great grandchildren.

The family will be welcoming guests from 7:00 to 8:30 pm on June 29, 2018, at Martin Funeral Home East, 1460 George Dieter Drive, El Paso, Texas 79936. Funeral services will be held in El Paso at 11:00 am on June 30, 2018, at All Saints Episcopal Church 3500 McRae Blvd., El Paso, Texas 79925. A memorial service will be held in Austin at 11:00 am on July 7, 2018, at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, 8724 Travis Hills Drive, Austin, Texas 78735. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mary C. Green Endowed Scholarship in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Services entrusted to Martin East www.funerariasdelangel.com/martin-east 915-855-8881