Greene, William Jeff, Jr., 2000 May 10

The following is an Living History interview with William J. Greene, class of 1936, conducted by Marilyn J. Somers on May 10, 2000, at Mr. Rogers' home in Atlanta, Georgia. The subject of the interview is student life at Georgia Tech. Mr. Greene was born on July 3, 1914 at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. He has attended Central Presbyterian Church since he was born. He lived in Atlanta during the fire of 1917, and his house was one of two on his block that did not burn down. Mr. Greene talks about Buckhead and the Peachtree Heights area where he grew up. He often took the streetcar to school. Mr. Greene had a paper route delivering the Atlanta Journal. When his family moved to Virginia, Mr. Greene moved back to Georgia after a year so that he could go to Tech as an in-state student. He wanted to come to Tech because he knew he wanted to be an engineer, and he knew of the school because of its football team. He was on Fulton High School’s debate team when they defeated Tech High. Mr. Greene lived at home in Fairburn, Georgia and commuted to Tech. He mentions several professors that he remembers from Tech. He tells stories about getting rides home, meeting his future wife, and trying to find a co-op job. He says that not many people had cars back then, but his dad let him borrow a car to go on dates on Saturday nights. Mr. Greene helped start a Boy Scout troop in Fairburn and produced twenty-seven eagle scouts. During school, he worked three different co-op jobs. He later worked for forty-seven years with the company with which he did his last co-op job. During World War II, he was in the Ordinance branch of the military, but he never left Georgia. Mr. Greene and his wife lost their first two babies, but they were able to adopt a five-day old baby boy. Mr. Greene’s company was an engineering firm that worked with water and sewers. He was involved with a couple water-related organizations and has earned many honors and awards with them.