Background
Greene was born on October 12, 1874, in Yokohama, Japan, the son of the Reverend Daniel Crosby Greene and Mary Jane Forbes. Until he was thirteen, he lived chiefly in Japan, where his parents were Congregational missionaries.
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Jerome Davis Greene
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After a year's furlough in Europe (1887-1888), the family lived in Auburndale, Massachusetts, and Greene attended Newton (Massachusetts) High School. He won a $250 freshman scholarship to Harvard and from then on paid all his academic and living expenses by newspaper reporting, proofreading, and summer "tutoring. " Greene spent some time in Switzerland, where he enrolled for a semester in the faculty of law at the University of Geneva. In the fall of 1897 he entered the Harvard Law School, but abandoned his studied a year later.
Career
As an undergraduate Greene worked on the Harvard Crimson, serving as managing editor and president in 1895-1896. In the second half of his senior year he accepted a fifteen-month post as tutor and companion to a Harvard undergraduate. In 1898, while continuing his newspaper reporting, became editor of a new alumni weekly, the Harvard Bulletin. During his tenure (1898-1899, 1900-1901), he transformed it from an athletic journal into a general medium of Harvard news. This activity led Greene to abandon his law studies, and in 1899 he joined the staff of the University Press of Cambridge, which he served as New York salesman, printing plant superintendent, and assistant to the general manager. In the summer of 1901, Greene became secretary to Harvard President Charles W. Eliot. In 1905 he was elected secretary to the Harvard Corporation (the president and fellows of Harvard College), member of the faculty, and member of the reorganized admissions committee. He was instrumental in establishing the first alumni directory and the official University Gazette. Eliot retired in 1909, and for a year Greene continued as secretary to the Harvard Corporation. However, the new president, A. Lawrence Lowell, seemed unprepared to give him the wide responsibilities he had enjoyed under Eliot. Greene nevertheless recognized Lowell's great capacities, and the parting a year later was entirely amicable. Greene then became general manager of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. This led in 1912 to five years of close association with John D. Rockefeller, Jr. , first as an adviser on business and philanthropic matters and representative of Rockefeller interests on the boards of two railroads and several industrial corporations, and in 1913, after its incorporation under New York law, as secretary and executive officer of the new Rockefeller Foundation. He resigned his Rockefeller connections in 1917, but continued as a trustee of the Rockefeller Institute (later Rockefeller University) until 1932. In 1928 he renewed his tie with the Rockefeller Foundation and the General Education Board, serving as a trustee until he reached retirement age in 1939. Under the influence of Frederick A. Cleveland, head of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, Greene helped establish the Institute for Government Research (1916), a Washington-based group dedicated to public efficiency and economy at the national level. Eventually it took the name of one of its most generous benefactors and leading trustees, Robert S. Brookings. Greene remained a trustee and member of the executive committee until 1945. In 1917 he was appointed executive secretary of the American Shipping Mission, representing the United States on the Allied Maritime Transport Council in London. The council virtually controlled the allocation of Allied shipping resources. After the war he attended the Versailles conference, where he served as one of the four joint reparation secretaries. Elected a partner of the banking house of Lee Higginson and Co. in 1918, Greene returned to New York in May 1919. For the next thirteen years he handled loan negotiations (particularly in the public utility field) in England, South America, and Japan. Greene continued to devote more than half his time to public service projects, one of which was the Institute of Pacific Relations. He was chairman of the American Council of the institute from 1929 to 1932; and after the Japanese takeover in Manchuria in September 1931, he spoke and wrote frequently on the Asian situation. In 1932 Greene suddenly faced nearly total ruin with the failure of Lee Higginson, which was precipitated by the collapse of the financial empire of Ivar Kreuger, the Swedish "match king" who left the firm holding some $8 million of his debentures based on fraudulent credit. Although he had had little to do with Kreuger, Greene was chosen to announce to the public, on June 14, 1932, the plan to liquidate the banking partnership and create a new firm, capitalized by outside sources. Needing to make a fresh start, he accepted the Wilson professorship of international politics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, which provided opportunities for public discussion of international issues, particularly those concerning the tense situation in the Far East. Greene felt most comfortable in an academic setting. One of his principal interests remained Harvard University, which he served as overseer in 1911-1913, 1917-1923, and 1944-1950. During the early 1920's, he had opposed with characteristic forthrightness President Lowell's statements and actions regarding the proportion of Jewish students and the status of black students in Harvard College. In 1934 Greene returned to Cambridge as secretary to the Harvard Corporation and director of the Harvard tercentenary. This great academic festival, which he spent two years planning, admirably saluted both Harvard's accomplishments and the achievement of American higher education. Greene continued his career at Harvard as secretary to the two governing boards until his retirement in 1943. He died on March 29, 1959.
Achievements
Views
Greene was particularly interested in the International Health Division of the foundation, which sponsored work on the control of hookworm, malaria, and yellow fever. He enthusiastically supported John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 's, successful effort to break the taboo against public discussion of venereal disease control and in 1916 became one of the organizers, treasurer, and executive committeeman of the American Social Hygiene Association. With the outbreak of World War I, Greene took charge of the war relief activities of the Rockefeller Foundation and, at the request of Herbert Hoover, supervised arrangements for the shipment of the first relief supplies to Belgium and organized the commissions sent to Europe under Rockefeller sponsorship to recommend and inspect relief activity.
Personality
Physically strong to the end of his life, erect and confident in bearing, precise in manner, meticulous in matters of detail, Greene appeared to some a bit of an autocrat, somewhat rigid in questions of propriety, a high-minded and urbane gentleman of the old school.
Connections
On April 28, 1900, Greene married May Tevis; they had one son. After the death of his first wife in 1941, Greene married Dorothea Rebecca Dusser de Barenne on August 20, 1942; they had one son.
