Green services

Memorial services for Morton Green, 85, Lawrence, will be later.

Mr. Green died Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2003, at his home.

He was born Oct. 25, 1917, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of Leon and Nessa (Lackow) Green. He graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn. He received a bachelor’s degree in zoology in 1939 and a master’s degree in 1942, both from Kansas University. He received a doctorate at University of California-Berkeley.

Mr. Green was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II and served in the Pacific with the 19th Medical General Laboratory. He was appointed assistant professor of biology at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, S.D., in 1950. In 1956 he became head of the biology department, which he held for 24 years. He worked at the Museum of Geology at the school, serving as research associate from 1950 to 1961, curator of vertebrate paleontology from 1962 to 1980 and associate director from 1968 to 1975, acting as director from 1967 to 1968. He was on sabbatical leave in 1965 and 1966 in France, where he was professor associe de faculte des sciences at the Universite de Montpellier. He played violin and viola with the Rapid City Symphony, serving one year as concertmaster.

He retired from the South Dakota school and moved to Lawrence in 1980. He was appointed adjunct research associate at KU. He joined the Monday Night Ma Non Troppo String Players. He was a charter member the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, fellow of the Geological Society of America, member and 1963 president of the South Dakota Academy of Science, and member of Paleontological Society, American Institute of Biological Science and Sigma Xi.

He married Elizabeth A. Griffith on June 6, 1946. She survives of the home.

Other survivors include two sons, Leon M., Wilmington, Del., and Joel G., Kirkland, Wash.; a daughter, Julia Green Rombough, Lawrence; and five grandchildren.

Memorials may be sent to Lawrence Jewish Community Center, KU Museum of Natural History, Douglas County Visiting Nurses Assn. or Hospice Care in Douglas County, sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home.

Online condolences may be sent at www.rumsey-yost.com.