Cecil Howard Green
Encyclopedia
Cecil Howard Green was a British
-born American
geophysicist who trained at the University of British Columbia
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.
He was a founder of Texas Instruments
. With his wife Ida Green, he was a philanthropist
who helped found the University of Texas at Dallas
, Green College
at the University of British Columbia
, St. Mark's School of Texas
, and Green College
at the University of Oxford
. They were also major contributors to the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford University
, and the Cecil & Ida Green Building
for earth sciences at MIT (designed by I.M. Pei).
, England
, in 1900, Green and his family migrated to Nova Scotia
, Toronto
, Canada
and San Francisco, United States
. There, as a witness to the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake
, young Cecil received his first lesson in geophysics
, the field in which he would make his fortune. The family moved to Vancouver
, British Columbia
, where Green attended UBC
for two years before transferring to The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, earning both a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering
in 1924.
Green met Ida Flansburgh in 1923 while working on his master's thesis at the General Electric
Research Center in Schenectady, New York
. They were married for 60 years, until her death in 1986. The couple crisscrossed the country five times, making their home in auto camps and tents. Green worked as an engineer for electronics companies. He unsuccessfully tried to sell neon signs in Canada. He answered want ads for jobs selling everything from insurance to automobiles. But once he found a job in geophysical exploration, his fortune was all but made. In 1930, the Greens moved to Oklahoma where Green accepted a job from Eugene McDermott
as chief of a seismographic field crew for the newly organized Geophysical Service Incorporated
. Founded in May 1930 in Dallas, Texas, GSI was one of the first independent prospecting companies established to perform reflection seismic exploration
for petroleum
.
In 1941, Green and three partners – J. Erik Jonsson
, Eugene McDermott
and H.B. Peacock – bought GSI when they heard that the owners planned to sell the oil production unit. Green borrowed money, took out a mortgage, committed his and Ida's insurance policies as collateral and scraped together everything they owned to pay his share. The deal went through on December 6, 1941, the day before Pearl Harbor was bombed. It just so happened that GSI had developed a towed magnetometer
for oil exploration. It was not particularly useful for finding oil but very useful indeed for finding enemy submarines. GSI continued to prosper.
Under the leadership of Green and his team, which by the end of the decade included Pat Haggerty
, GSI became a geophysical exploration service leader. But it was the electronics work begun during World War II that was to make important technology history. In 1951, the company's name was changed to Texas Instruments
Incorporated (TI), and GSI became a wholly owned subsidiary of TI.
Green served as vice president (1941-1951), president (1951-1955) and chairman of GSI (1955-1959). He also served as vice president and director of Texas Instruments and in 1976 was named honorary director of the company. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1970. In 1979 Green and his wife were awarded the Public Welfare Medal
from the National Academy of Sciences
.
Today, Texas Instruments is one of the world's leading designers and suppliers of digital signal processing
and analog technologies, the engines driving the Internet age. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas
, TI in 2004 had $12.6 billion in revenues ($10.9B Semiconductor) with more than 34,000 employees worldwide.
Cecil Howard Green died in 2003 at the age of 102.
.
One gift was the founding of the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green branch of the University of California Systemwide Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP). This branch is located at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
It was because of Green’s generous gift that Green College, Oxford
was founded in 1979. Green College merged with Templeton College
in 2008 to become Green Templeton College
, on the site of what was previously Green College.
Some of Green's philanthropy at the University of British Columbia
(UBC) was encouraged by William Carleton Gibson, a neurologist
in Victoria, British Columbia
, Canada
. Both Gibson and Green referred to Gibson as "Cecil Green's most expensive friend" due to his encouragement to fund the Cecil and Ida Green Visiting Professorship and Green College, University of British Columbia
. In 1998, the UBC Alumni Association gave Green and Gibson alumni "Lifetime Achievement Awards" in recognition of their support for the University.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
geophysicist who trained at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
.
He was a founder of Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
. With his wife Ida Green, he was a philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
who helped found the University of Texas at Dallas
University of Texas at Dallas
The University of Texas at Dallas, also referred to as UT Dallas or UTD, is a public research university in the University of Texas System. The main campus is in the heart of the Richardson, Texas, Telecom Corridor, north of downtown Dallas...
, Green College
Green College, University of British Columbia
Green College is a centre for interdisciplinary scholarship and a community of scholars at the University of British Columbia founded by Cecil Howard Green and Ida Green....
at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, St. Mark's School of Texas
St. Mark's School of Texas
The St. Mark's School of Texas is a nonsectarian preparatory day school for boys located in Preston Hollow, Dallas, Texas, USA. The School offers grades 1–12.-History:...
, and Green College
Green College, Oxford
Green College was a graduate college of the University of Oxford in England. It was centred around an architecturally appealing 18th century building: the Radcliffe Observatory, which is modelled after the ancient "Tower of the Winds" in Athens....
at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. They were also major contributors to the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, and the Cecil & Ida Green Building
Green Building (MIT)
The Cecil and Ida Green Building, also called the Green Building or Building 54, is an academic and research building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It was designed by noted architect I. M. Pei, who received his bachelor's degree from MIT in...
for earth sciences at MIT (designed by I.M. Pei).
Biography
Born in WhitefieldWhitefield, Greater Manchester
Whitefield is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on undulating ground in the Irwell Valley, along the south bank of the River Irwell, south-southeast of Bury, and to the north-northwest of the city of Manchester...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, in 1900, Green and his family migrated to Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and San Francisco, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. There, as a witness to the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
, young Cecil received his first lesson in geophysics
Geophysics
Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...
, the field in which he would make his fortune. The family moved to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, where Green attended UBC
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
for two years before transferring to The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, earning both a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
in 1924.
Green met Ida Flansburgh in 1923 while working on his master's thesis at the General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
Research Center in Schenectady, New York
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
. They were married for 60 years, until her death in 1986. The couple crisscrossed the country five times, making their home in auto camps and tents. Green worked as an engineer for electronics companies. He unsuccessfully tried to sell neon signs in Canada. He answered want ads for jobs selling everything from insurance to automobiles. But once he found a job in geophysical exploration, his fortune was all but made. In 1930, the Greens moved to Oklahoma where Green accepted a job from Eugene McDermott
Eugene McDermott
Eugene McDermott was a geophysicist and co-founder of first of Geophysical Service and later of Texas Instruments.Born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 12, 1899. He graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919 with a mechanical engineering degree.-Early career:Upon graduation,...
as chief of a seismographic field crew for the newly organized Geophysical Service Incorporated
Geophysical Service Incorporated
Geophysical Service Inc. was founded by John Clarence Karcher and Eugene McDermott in 1930 for the purpose of using refraction and reflection seismology to explore for petroleum deposits. It became one of the most successful seismic exploration contractors in the industry for many years...
. Founded in May 1930 in Dallas, Texas, GSI was one of the first independent prospecting companies established to perform reflection seismic exploration
Reflection seismology
Reflection seismology is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflected seismic waves. The method requires a controlled seismic source of energy, such as dynamite/Tovex, a specialized air gun or a...
for petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
.
In 1941, Green and three partners – J. Erik Jonsson
J. Erik Jonsson
John Erik Jonsson was a co-founder and former president of Texas Instruments Incorporated. A skillful businessman, he became mayor of Dallas, a major factor in the creation of DFW airport and a philanthropist in later years....
, Eugene McDermott
Eugene McDermott
Eugene McDermott was a geophysicist and co-founder of first of Geophysical Service and later of Texas Instruments.Born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 12, 1899. He graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919 with a mechanical engineering degree.-Early career:Upon graduation,...
and H.B. Peacock – bought GSI when they heard that the owners planned to sell the oil production unit. Green borrowed money, took out a mortgage, committed his and Ida's insurance policies as collateral and scraped together everything they owned to pay his share. The deal went through on December 6, 1941, the day before Pearl Harbor was bombed. It just so happened that GSI had developed a towed magnetometer
Magnetic anomaly detector
A magnetic anomaly detector is an instrument used to detect minute variations in the Earth's magnetic field. The term refers specifically to magnetometers used by military forces to detect submarines ; the military MAD gear is a descendent of geomagnetic survey instruments used to search for...
for oil exploration. It was not particularly useful for finding oil but very useful indeed for finding enemy submarines. GSI continued to prosper.
Under the leadership of Green and his team, which by the end of the decade included Pat Haggerty
Patrick E. Haggerty
Patrick Eugene Haggerty was an American engineer and businessman. He was a co-founder and former president and chairman of Texas Instruments, Incorporated. Haggerty is most responsible for turning a small Texas oil exploration company into the leader in semiconductors that Texas Instruments is today...
, GSI became a geophysical exploration service leader. But it was the electronics work begun during World War II that was to make important technology history. In 1951, the company's name was changed to Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
Incorporated (TI), and GSI became a wholly owned subsidiary of TI.
Green served as vice president (1941-1951), president (1951-1955) and chairman of GSI (1955-1959). He also served as vice president and director of Texas Instruments and in 1976 was named honorary director of the company. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1970. In 1979 Green and his wife were awarded the Public Welfare Medal
Public Welfare Medal
The Public Welfare Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "in recognition of distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare." It is the most prestigious honor conferred by the Academy...
from the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
.
Today, Texas Instruments is one of the world's leading designers and suppliers of digital signal processing
Digital signal processing
Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
and analog technologies, the engines driving the Internet age. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, TI in 2004 had $12.6 billion in revenues ($10.9B Semiconductor) with more than 34,000 employees worldwide.
Cecil Howard Green died in 2003 at the age of 102.
Philanthropy
The growth of TI made Green an enormously wealthy man, and he and Ida quickly set about giving his wealth away. The Greens' philanthropic efforts totalled over $200 million, and most of this money was given to education and medicine. He was given an honorary knighthood in 1991 (at age 91) by Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
.
One gift was the founding of the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green branch of the University of California Systemwide Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP). This branch is located at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
It was because of Green’s generous gift that Green College, Oxford
Green College, Oxford
Green College was a graduate college of the University of Oxford in England. It was centred around an architecturally appealing 18th century building: the Radcliffe Observatory, which is modelled after the ancient "Tower of the Winds" in Athens....
was founded in 1979. Green College merged with Templeton College
Templeton College, Oxford
Templeton College was one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, England. It was an all-graduate college, concentrating on the recruitment of students in business and management studies....
in 2008 to become Green Templeton College
Green Templeton College, Oxford
Green Templeton College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is the university's newest college having come into existence on 1 October 2008 from the merger of Green College and Templeton College...
, on the site of what was previously Green College.
Some of Green's philanthropy at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
(UBC) was encouraged by William Carleton Gibson, a neurologist
Neurologist
A neurologist is a physician who specializes in neurology, and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat neurological disorders.Neurology is the medical specialty related to the human nervous system. The nervous system encompasses the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. A specialist...
in Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Both Gibson and Green referred to Gibson as "Cecil Green's most expensive friend" due to his encouragement to fund the Cecil and Ida Green Visiting Professorship and Green College, University of British Columbia
Green College, University of British Columbia
Green College is a centre for interdisciplinary scholarship and a community of scholars at the University of British Columbia founded by Cecil Howard Green and Ida Green....
. In 1998, the UBC Alumni Association gave Green and Gibson alumni "Lifetime Achievement Awards" in recognition of their support for the University.
See also
- Texas InstrumentsTexas InstrumentsTexas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
- Cecil H. Green LibraryGreen LibraryThe Cecil H. Green Library is the main library on the Stanford University campus and part of Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources . It is named for Cecil H. Green....
- Green College, OxfordGreen College, OxfordGreen College was a graduate college of the University of Oxford in England. It was centred around an architecturally appealing 18th century building: the Radcliffe Observatory, which is modelled after the ancient "Tower of the Winds" in Athens....
- Green College, University of British ColumbiaGreen College, University of British ColumbiaGreen College is a centre for interdisciplinary scholarship and a community of scholars at the University of British Columbia founded by Cecil Howard Green and Ida Green....