Wilbur P. "Bill" Green

Wilbur P. "Bill" Green, 93, of Fairbanks, passed away Oct. 14, 2014.
Bill was born April 13, 1921, in Seattle. His grandparents and parents came north in the early 1900s, living in McGrath, Tokotna and Fairbanks. Bill's grandfather was a dentist and his father was a fur buyer. Bill's older brother, Bert, was born in McGrath in 1916.
Bill's parents divorced shortly after he was born and he spent his childhood back east on his maternal grandfather's farm in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Upon graduating from high school, he traveled across the country to the 1939 World's Fair on San Francisco Bay's Treasure Island. He also spent some time in Southern California working at a movie theater and visiting with his paternal grandparents. His grandparents gave Bill a letter of introduction to Dr. Charles Bunnell at the university in Fairbanks.
He returned to Alaska to look for the father he never knew. He located his father in the Fortymile Mining District where Bill got a job as a bull cook. Bill later worked as a night watchman for the F.E. Company and for the Alaska Railroad, driving a small railroad service car between Fairbanks and Ferry looking for "spark fires" in the summer.
He joined the U.S. Army Air Force while in Ketchikan in 1942 and served in the 10th AAF Emergency Rescue Boat Squadron in the Aleutian Islands as the skipper of P-510. On Veteran's Day 2000 in Newport Beach, California, he and members of his crew were invited to participate in a ceremony on the deck of the old P-510 crash boat (today called The Dream Maker) which had by then had many lives and was a tourist cruise ship in Newport Bay.
He married Mary Hougendobler in Juneau in 1945 and returned to Fairbanks where their first son, Gary, was born. Bill graduated from the University of Alaska in 1950 and worked in public health in Klamath and Salem, Oregon, and two more sons were added to the family, Richard and Douglas.
In 1957, Bill accepted a job with the State of Alaska Public Health Department in Juneau for a year before returning to Fairbanks to work as the sanitarian responsible for inspecting local dairies and restaurants. Their fourth son, Roger, was born in Fairbanks in 1961.
Upon retirement at age 55, Bill traveled, driving Outside regularly to visit family. He also lived in Juneau and used his Alaska residency to help purchase a homesite in Hollis before settling into a cabin on Flag Hill in Salcha, where he lived for 20 years. At age 85, he relocated to a small cabin on Birch Hill adjacent to his son Richard's house and enjoyed walking up to the mailbox every day to send and pick up his mail. At age 90, he chose to move into the Fairbanks Pioneers' Home and thoroughly enjoyed his remaining years being cared for by the wonderful staff members there.
He remained active physically and mentally to the end. The day before he died, he was using his iPad to communicate with family members. Bill thoroughly enjoyed being an instigator and champion for things and causes he thought needed changing or fixing.
Bill was a recipient of an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., in September 2012 to visit the World War II Memorial and participated with other veterans visiting many memorial sites. He was especially appreciative of all the people who would come up to him when he was out in public wearing his World War II "Greatest Generation" ball cap and thank him for his service, pay for his meal or just greet him. He was an avid Fred Meyer customer and spent many a day shopping and people-watching while having lunch in the snack bar.
He was always a man ahead of his time. In 1977, Bill thought electric cars would be the wave of the future. He started an electric car company and purchased a battery powered van in Texas and towed it to Seattle then via the ferry to Juneau. There he got an article published in the Southeast Alaska Empire daily newspaper proclaiming the benefits of electric cars.
He was preceded in death by his son, Douglas, and his former spouse, Mary. He is survived by his sons, Gary (Sharon), of Bozeman, Montana; Richard (Nancy) and Roger (Theresa), of Fairbanks; seven grandchildren, Ethan Green, Sarah Veltkamp, Karen (Ben) McMullen, Chris Green, Kimberly (Caleb) Ives, Kyle (Linda) Green and Tiffany Green and four great-grandchildren, Tyler Veltkamp, Emily Veltkamp, Kincaid Ives and Talitha McMullen.
The family wishes to express their greatest gratitude to the wonderful staff of the Pioneers' Home and all the drivers and dispatchers of VanTran who enabled Bill to enjoy his last years of somewhat limited mobility, by getting him out and about to enjoy the Fairbanks that he so loved.
The family will host an informal memorial reception from 2-3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, in the library room at the Fairbanks Pioneers' Home, 2221 Eagan Ave.
In lieu of flowers tax deductible donations may be made to the Fairbanks Pioneers' Home Foundation.