Roy M. Green 1940 - 1948 |
University Presidents |
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Following a brief stint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Green embarked upon a long period devoted to college teaching and technical research at the University of Missouri and Kansas State College. In 1934 he left academia for a period of governmental service. Green became President of Colorado State College in 1940. His goals for the school were based upon an explicit and comprehensive knowledge of agriculture. In his view, Colorado was fundamentally an agrarian state, dependent upon farming income and products to nourish the rest of the economy. Green refused to be distracted by minor fiscal concerns, trivial items of correspondence, or routine institutional decisions. He believed in delegating authority as well as responsibility. He was a hard-driving individual who habitually maintained a frenetic pace. A significant array of distractions and misfortunes impeded Roy Green's aspirations for Colorado State College. Despite his dedication, talent, and ambition, the president, throughout his tenure at Fort Collins, found himself overwhelmed by circumstances beyond his control, primarily World War II and the subsequent deluge of returning veterans. His wartime leadership, however, was notable for bringing a host of military training programs to the campus. He also responded effectively to the G.I. Bill that presented sudden enrollment pressures. His goal of establishing the school as a pervasive catalyst for Colorado's agricultural economy foundered as resources were diverted to meet a series of pressing crises. Ill health also handicapped the president's efforts. During the last summer of 1941, Green suffered a physical breakdown that necessitated a three-month leave of absence. In 1946, while sitting in the lounge of Denver's Brown Palace Hotel with two of his colleagues, he sustained a gunshot wound when a deranged ex-serviceman went berserk, pulled a gun, and began firing wildly around the room. Although Green soon recovered, the shock to his system and the need to make up lost time imposed an added strain upon his already uncertain physical condition. The president carried on at a grueling pace until the fall of 1948 when he suffered a complete breakdown. Following surgery for a high blood pressure condition, he experienced a blood clot in the heart and died. Crises marked his tenure, yet the period was one of successful transition to an institution increasingly responsive to the demands and realities of modern land-grant higher education. |
Born in 1889 on a farm in Carroll County, Missouri, Green spent his youth attending local public schools and finding employment as a farm and factory worker. In 1917 he graduated from the University of Missouri after studying animal husbandry and farm management.