Cecil Howard Green
Cecil Howard Green | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 August 1900 Whitefield, England |
| Died | 11 April 2003 (aged 102) |
| Occupation(s) | Electrical engineer, geophysicist, businessman, philanthropist |
| Known for | Co-founder of Texas Instruments; leadership at Geophysical Service Inc. |
Cecil Howard Green (August 6, 1900 – April 11, 2003) was a British-born American expert in geophysics, an electrical engineer, and a leader in the electronics industry. He pursued his education at the University of British Columbia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Green was a co-founder of Texas Instruments and played key leadership roles at Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI). Together with his wife, Ida Green, he became a notable philanthropist, contributing to the establishment of institutions such as the University of Texas at Dallas, Green College, University of British Columbia, St. Mark's School of Texas, and Green College, Oxford. Their generosity also extended to significant facilities including the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford University, the Cecil H. & Ida Green Graduate Center at the Colorado School of Mines, the Cecil H. & Ida Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UC San Diego, the Cecil & Ida Green Building for earth sciences at MIT—designed by I.M. Pei—and the Cecil and Ida Green Tower, which serves as the headquarters for the international Society of Exploration Geophysicists in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Biography
Born in Whitefield, England, in 1900, Green’s family relocated first to Toronto, Ontario, Canada and then to San Francisco, United States, where he experienced the effects of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Subsequently, his family settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. There, Green attended the UBC for two years before transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering by 1924.
While completing his master’s thesis at the General Electric Research Center in Schenectady, New York in 1923, Green met Ida Flansburgh. The couple remained married for six decades until her passing in 1986.
In 1941, along with J. Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott, and H.B. Peacock, Green acquired Geophysical Service Incorporated (GSI), which was primarily engaged in petroleum exploration at that time. During World War II, GSI diversified into electronics manufacturing, producing devices such as anti-submarine sonar detectors. In 1951, GSI created Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) as a separate entity to focus on broader electronics production; GSI continued as a TI subsidiary concentrating on oil exploration services.
Green held multiple leadership positions: vice president of GSI from 1941 to 1951, president from 1951 to 1955, and chairman from 1955 to 1959. Additionally, he served as vice president and director at Texas Instruments and was honored as an honorary director in 1976. His achievements were recognized when he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1970.
In recognition of his contributions, Green was awarded the first-ever Maurice Ewing Medal by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists in 1978. The following year, he and his wife received the prestigious Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. In 1985, he was honored with the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement.
Cecil Howard Green passed away in 2003 at the age of 102.
Philanthropy
The expansion of TI brought substantial wealth to Green, enabling him and Ida to contribute more than $200 million, primarily supporting education and healthcare initiatives. In recognition of his accomplishments, Green was honored with an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991.
Among their charitable efforts was the establishment of the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green branch within the University of California Systemwide Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Green's generosity also led to the founding of Green College at Oxford University in 1979, which later combined with Templeton College in 2008 to create Green Templeton College.
At the University of British Columbia (UBC), inspired by neurologist William Carleton Gibson, Green supported the creation of both the Cecil and Ida Green Visiting Professorship and Green College, UBC. In 1998, both Cecil and Ida were honored with UBC Alumni Association "Lifetime Achievement Awards" in recognition of their significant contributions to the institution.
See also
External links
- Cecil Green's trips to Arabia, 1939 & 1978
- List of Cecil and Ida Green philanthropies
- Cecil H. Green: An Oral History, Stanford Historical Society, 1989
- Pages with script errors
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hCards
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- 1900 births
- 1906 San Francisco earthquake survivors
- 2003 deaths
- 20th-century American businesspeople
- 20th-century American philanthropists
- American chairpersons of corporations
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- American geophysicists
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- Businesspeople awarded knighthoods
- Businesspeople from Lancashire
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- English emigrants to the United States
- Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- MIT School of Engineering alumni
- People from Whitefield, Greater Manchester
- Technology corporate directors
- Texas Instruments people
- University of Texas at Dallas