Papers of Roy M. Green

Roy M. Green, noted agricultural economist, was the sixth president of Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College, serving from 1940 until his death in 1948. Green led the college through a difficult time during World War II, from declining enrollment, loss of faculty, and substantially decreased funding at the outbreak of the war, to rapid enrollment and campus expansion after the war ended when former service members were returning to campus.

Roy Monroe Green was born on March 12, 1889, in Carrollton, Missouri, to Calvin and Sophia Ann (Tripp) Green. He earned his B.S. from the University of Missouri in 1914, and his M.S. from Kansas State College (now Kansas State University) in 1923, and he completed graduate coursework at the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1930. He worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a science assistant in 1914, and in 1915 joined the staff of the University of Missouri as an instructor of farm management. Green married Mary Ethel Miller, May 4, 1915, and had four children, Roy Raymond, Dorothy Mae, Mary Frances, and Russell Lee.

Green was promoted to assistant professor at Missouri in 1916. He left in 1920 to become an associate professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State College and was promoted to professor in 1925. Green left Kansas State in 1934 to work for the Production Credit Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. From 1934 to 1940, he served as an administrator for several federal agricultural New Deal agencies, including the Production Credit Corporation and the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.

Roy Green was hired as the sixth president of the Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College, replacing the retiring Charles Lory in 1940. Green's goal was to establish the school as a pervasive catalyst for Colorado's agricultural economy. One of his first acts as president was to tour the state, introducing himself and his ideas for the college. He also wished to improve the relationship between the college and the local residents. He assigned this task to Wilmer J. McMillian, special assistant to the president, who created his own schedule of meetings with local businesses, discussing how the college would need the support of the town to be successful. Within two years, the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce set aside a portion of their budget to support various campus activities. Unlike President Lory who was involved with all aspects of operation, including day-to-day tasks, Green believed in delegating work to subordinate administrators and faculty, giving them the freedom to make their own decisions. McMillian's work was an example of this philosophy.

With the outbreak of World War II, Green had to refocus his efforts away from his goals and began to look at how to keep the campus operating with the imminent decline in students and faculty. He focused on bringing military training programs to the campus, establishing an agreement with the Army to train clerical staff, and dedicating the department of mechanical engineering to training of pilots, as well as instruction for army engineers and veterinarians. After the war ended, Green's attention shifted to handling the soaring enrollment of veterans on the G.I. Bill as well as where to house these students and their families. Overburdened classrooms and dormitories led to a major campus expansion in 1947, including construction of a veterinary hospital, additions to the forestry and chemistry buildings, and new greenhouses.

Green habitually maintained a frenetic pace, which led to a decline in health in the late summer of 1941. After a three-month leave of absence Green returned to his previous pace, but was plagued by ill health throughout his tenure at Colorado A&M. In 1946, Green was shot when an ex-serviceman pulled a gun and began firing in the lounge of Denver's Brown Palace Hotel. He recovered, but in 1948 he suffered a complete physical breakdown. During surgery for high blood pressure, Roy Green developed a blood clot and died unexpectedly on January 22, 1948.

Historical information taken from: Pioneer College President: Combining a Biography of Dr. E.E. Edwards with a History of the Earliest Years of Colorado State University, by James R. Miller, p. 190 and Democracy's College in the Centennial State: A History of Colorado State University by James E. Hansen II, pp. 333-363.