OBITUARY Mark Greene
1959-2021
John Donne, the English Renaissance poet, once wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent. A part of the main.”
We have always believed this at East Longmeadow High School. We are all part of a community. Everyone matters. We felt this acutely when Mr. Mark Greene, our beloved teacher, friend, and colleague, passed away unexpectedly in early March.
Soft-spoken and friendly, Mr. Greene had a wide variety of interests in books, bikes, current events, and history. He shared these interests with a wide variety of friends and colleagues and family. He worked as a tour guide at Storrowton. Mr. Greene also loved motorcycles, owned many over the years, and rode to work when he could and over the country roads of Somers when he couldn’t. In an era of specialization, and intellectual decline, Mr. Greene stood out as a renaissance man, thoughtful, well-read, and knowledgeable about a variety of subjects.
Professionally, the effects of Mr. Greene’s work will continue to be felt for many, many years to come. He was an integral part of creating our high school’s engineering curriculum, attending training over the summer to get Project Lead the Way off the ground and co-teaching the first class with colleague Peter Van Buren. Later, he would teach those classes on his own. And when students had a technology project–whether it was 3-D printing or laser cutting–Mr. Green was always an enthusiastic mentor and guide. When the business department had more classes than available teachers, he taught them.
The phrase team player is often cliche, yet considered thoughtfully, it describes Mr. Greene well. He was frequently working with someone to advance a larger goal. There was always something humble about him, the way he listened more than he spoke in conversation, and the fact that he never bragged or even appeared to take credit for the victories he helped to create.
