Charles Elwyn Green was born in Midian, Kansas on September 30, 1918. His father, also named Charles, was an experienced oil field mechanic from Pennsylvania, and he had moved his family (his wife Irene and his first son Franklyn) to an oil boomtown in Eastern Kansas.
When Charlie was five, his family moved to Bolivar, New York where he went to school. He graduated in 1936 and went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was lucky enough to keep employed during these Depression years, as a mechanic with the Railroad and later with Westinghouse Air Brake.
Charlie, or "Toot" to his cousins, had received his Draft notice in late 1941 and was scheduled to be inducted into the service in early 1942. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941 he immediately reported for duty, and trained to become an airplane mechanic with the Army Air Corps. He was stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi until his assignment to the 44th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force. The base that he served on was in Shipdham, England, near the city of Norwich.
After the War he took advantage of the GI Bill and got a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Buffalo. While he was going to school he worked part time as a bartender at the Bolivar Country Club; and, in 1949 met Margaret Griswold, a teacher in the Wellsville School Department. They were married on August 12, 1950 and lived in Buffalo, New York for a year where Margaret got a teaching job and Charlie finished his last year of school.
Charlie took a job with Clark Brothers Corporation in Olean, New York, where he worked for 33 years, retiring in 1984.
Charlie and Margaret had one child; a son, Tom, born in 1953.
Charlie was active in the Olean Presbyterian Church, serving as a Deacon and a member of the Board of Elders. He was also the director of Christian Education for several years.
Charlie was a life-long Republican; and he was elected to several offices in Allegany, New York, the town where he and Margaret moved in 1952, and where he resided until his death in 1986.
Charlie was a 33rd degree Mason in the Masonic Lodge in Olean, New York.
He was an incredibly gifted mechanic. There were few appliances or mechanical parts that he wouldn't attempt to repair.
Charlie enjoyed the outdoors - camping and hiking, and cross-country and downhill skiing. He learned to golf when working at the Bolivar Country Club, and he continued to work on his game - several times winning the Clark Brothers Golf League Championship. He also enjoyed auto rallying; and he was the President of the Allegheny Valley Sports Car Club in the early 1970s.
He is greatly missed by his family and friends.
