Dr. Allen (Jim) Jonathan Green DDS
June 3, 1931 - April 29, 2021
With profound sadness, we lost Jim April 29th, 2021 in San Bruno, CA. Jim was the son of Allen S. Green of San Francisco and Ruth M. Giles of Virginia City, NV. He passed away surrounded by his loving family, wife, Joan and sons, James (Jami) and Jonathan (Jaclyn). He is survived by his sister, Caroline Monahan, sisters-in-law, Kathleen O'Rourke (Mike), Nancy Padilla (Dave) and brother-in-law, Ernie daRoza (Kellee) and a host of nieces and nephews.
Jim was drafted into the US Armed Forces and served as a dental lab technician at Fort Ord from 1954-1956. Following his discharge, he was encouraged by fellow soldiers in the dental lab detachment to join them at San Diego State for the pre-dental program. Jim credits his experience at Fort Ord with paving his career path into the field of dentistry.
Jim was proud of his enrollment at UCSF School of Dentistry. After graduation, he was invited to join the faculty. He officially retired from UCSF in 1992 but continued his career when he was recalled to the Advanced Education in General Dentistry program at the Buchanan Dental Center to oversee the Prosthodontic Program. He also provided clinical instruction at University of Pacific's Advanced Education in General Dentistry program.
Jim cherished his profession. He was proud to work beside his colleagues, students, and patients. He enjoyed reminding his contemporaries, "I have blue and gold in my veins." Receiving the UCSF Dental Alumni Association Medal of Honor in 2005 was the highlight of Jim's career. Jim also practiced, privately, in the San Francisco Sunset District for more than 32 years.
Jim was a member of a multitude of professional organizations such as the San Francisco, California, American Dental Societies. Jim was a UCSF Emeriti Faculty Association Member and a Fellow of the American College of Dentists. He was a member of the Xi Psi Phi fraternity and the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Dental Honor Society.
He served on the San Francisco Dental Society's Peer Review Committee as well as the Executive Council of the UCSF Dental Alumni Association. Jim was selected as the Historian for the UCSF School of Dentistry Alumni Association. He established the "Historian's Corner" featured in the UCSF Oracal.
During Jim's tenure at UCSF, he researched and published numerous dental journal articles. Once spoken by a colleague, "Jim's rapport with the students coupled with his professional expertise is reflected in their excellent clinical ability and understanding of this area of dentistry."
As a child of the Depression Era, Jim enjoyed many unique experiences which became the delightful subject matter of his personal stories. When his family fished in San Francisco Bay and his father attached him to a pier at the age of four, a life-long passion for fishing was established.
Through the years, many of Jim's colorful stories directly reflect his life and times such as Dungeness crabs escaping from an overturned gunny sack and scampering across passengers' feet on the late afternoon commuter streetcar on Van Ness Avenue or the Air Force from Hamilton Field deployed to rescue him from a duck blind located on the Marin side of San Francisco bay during very low tide.
Our father was a true family man. Everyday, he planned and prepared a delicious dinner enabling the entire family to sit together, share their experiences of the day and simply enjoy each other's company. He loved teaching us how to fish, camp, drive, prepare food on the grill and fix random things around the house. We cherished hearing our Dad's stories with descriptions that made us feel like we were beside him when it happened. His caring, sincere, and thoughtful nature will always be appreciated and never forgotten.
Jim's love of Golden Retrievers was highlighted with the family's ownership of 3 amazing pairs of Goldens. With frayed-edged photos of the Goldens (the "Kids") he frequently shared with interested folks, they often quipped, "I thought you had sons." Jim enjoyed volunteering for Norcal Golden Retriever Rescue from which several of the "Kids" were adopted.
A celebration of Jim's life will be scheduled at a later date.

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Published by San Francisco Chronicle from May 13 to May 23, 2021.

Memories and Condolences
for Allen Green

Sponsored by Duggan's Serra Mortuary - Daly City.

5 Entries

Suzanne Valente, DDS

July 10, 2021

I was so very sad to see that Dr. Green has passed. Dr. Green was by far one of my fondest memories from my time at UCSF. He had a warmth about him that patients (and students) really responded to. I learned so much about dentistry from him, as he had his own way of negotiating problems when standard operating procedure failed. Equally important, he showed me by example how you could be the ultimate professional, yet gain people's confidence by opening up to them. He always found common ground with a student or patient, whether it was fishing or dogs, or places in SF to enjoy or experience. He was so genuinely kind we all felt fortunate to have him as a resource and mentor. I had a car accident during my senior year, and had completed all but my last set of dentures, so I went over to Buchanan clinic to finish up after classes on campus were over. Lucky for me, Dr. Green was there to help me through my last denture patient. Luck of the draw, my patient was a City bus driver, who started his shift at 6AM. He would come to see me every day after his shift ended. As we worked to complete his dentures, all went well until I needed to get patient approval on how the teeth appeared. They were set in wax and we would try them in and usually the patient would just look at them and maybe make a minor request for an adjustment and then say OK. This patient wanted to take them home in wax presumably to show his wife. We usually encouraged patients to bring their spouse in to the clinic to look and provide approval, but he insisted she could not miss work. So Dr. Green allowed me to send the wax dentures home with him. We expected the patient would come back the next day with an answer. He came back but had a few small changes, and after I made the changes, he wanted to bring them home again. This went on day after day for over a week, and finally Dr. Green asked the patient what the difficulty was. Dr. Green managed to get the patient to acknowledge that his wife was fine with how his teeth looked--it was the patient who was not satisfied. He admitted he would get up every morning at 4AM to look at his wax dentures and look at them for about 1 1/2 hours until he had to leave for work! Dr. Green convinced the patient to look at them for the initial impression as that's how people around him would see his teeth. Eventually the patient came to a setting of the teeth that he was satisfied with. Dr. Green made sure I packed the teeth up safely to send them to the lab for processing. Unbelievably, when the dentures came back they did not fit the patient at all--the lab had distorted the bases during processing! Dr. Green looked at the dentures in the patient's mouth and agreed with me--they could not be salvaged. Remarkably, Dr. Green managed to calm the patient by telling him he was going to personally supervise the remake of his dentures step by step and he would be very pleased if he could just be patient. The patient was pleased! After the patient left, he turned to me and told me not to worry, I would not be making this next set of dentures. He said I had encountered and survived enough problems with this patient to get me through any denture I ever needed to make in private practice! He told me he was going to give me credit for the dentures and recommend I graduate. I have never forgotten his kindness, and he was right--every set of dentures I ever made in private practice went smoothly and patients were so pleased with their final results! I encountered Dr. Green several times after graduation, once when he encouraged the other Board members to let their hair down and approve an Alumni event I had planned (and it was great) and I would see him occasionally at Lunardi's market where we would catch up on his fishing and our dogs. I will miss him so very much!

Dan Ramos

May 26, 2021

A wonderful, caring, funny gentleman. I was fortunate to be taught by him. A true master of the profession who will be deeply missed.

Anita H Wies

May 25, 2021

To the family of my cherished and dear friend, Jim. I became friends with your husband and father in the late 1960's before we each got married and had families. Jim was a huge and kind presence in my life at a time which was very difficult for me. I will always remember Jim's steadiness, kind heart, sense of humor and great cooking and have sent him and all of you many blessings out to the Universe over the years for good health, great love, good heart and much joy in your lives. As a Registered Nurse at Mills-Peninsula Hospitals for 40+years, I have seen you, unbeknownst to you, in one form or another.....birth, healing and so forth. I send you all my heartfelt thoughts as you grieve the devastating loss of your beloved "sunny Jim". I know these days of grief are long and hard, and I hold you in my heart. To my much loved friend, Jim, I wish you happy hunting and fishing in the great big outdoors. We will all be together again and will happily swap stories, laughs and stupidities as were ours to share along life's journey. Rest with love and wonderful memories my friend until we are all together again.

Anita H Wies

May 25, 2021

To the family of my cherished and dear friend, Jim. I became friends with your husband and father in the late 1960's before we each got married and had our families. Jim was a huge and kind presence in my life at a time which was very difficult for me. I will always remember Jim's steadiness, kind heart, sense of humor, and great cooking and have sent him and all of you many blessings out to the Universe over the years for good health, good love, good hearts and joy in your lives. As a Registered Nurse at Mills-Peninsula Hospitals for 40+ years, I have seen you, unbeknownst to you, in one form or another.....birth, healing and more. I send you all my heartfelt love as you grieve the devastating loss of your beloved "sunny Jim". I know these days of grief are long and hard, and I hold you all in my heart. To my very loved and dear friend, Jim, I wish you happy hunting and fishing in the great big outdoors. We will all be together again and happily swap stories, laughs and stupidities as were our to share along life's journey. Rest with love, good memories and big laughs, my friend, until we all meet again in the great beyond.
With much love,
Anita Weber Wies

Bob Bertolina

May 17, 2021

Joan, I'm so sorry to hear about your husbands passing.

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