Emilia Sophia Larson

LAROY GREEN, 'HANDS-ON' EDUCATOR

For emcee LaRoy Green, hair was half the story at Lyle Chambers' retirement party.

Chambers didn't have any atop his head when he stepped down as an educator in the Union School District in San Jose. But the two men had worked together for 30 years, and Mr. Green was not content to speak of the here and now.

"I knew Lyle when he had hair, and when he didn't have hair," Mr. Green said, "when he had hair, and when he didn't have hair."

The master of ceremonies provided the evidence, showing a videotape of Chambers -- in a toupee, before it accidentally ended up in a load of wash and "shrunk to the size of a silver dollar," Chambers said.

The story of Chambers' hairpiece may have revealed as much about the teller as it did the tellee.

Mr. Green, who died of esophageal cancer at age 65 on Monday in Morgan Hill, could make people smile and laugh with him and sing his praises.

''He was one of the most sensitive and non-authoritarian people," Chambers said. "He was a good man who was always upbeat -- with parents, teachers, children."

LaRoy Lane Green spent his entire career guiding, encouraging, leading and teaching those parents, teachers and children, his friends and colleagues agreed.

A native of Texas, he migrated to Crockett in the North Bay and spent the World War II years in its high school. After obtaining his bachelor's degree from California State University, Sacramento in 1953 and hiring on to teach in Rodeo, he was drafted by the Selective Service -- after only two days on the job. After his two-year tour of duty, Mr. Green returned to Rodeo for two years before moving to the South Bay.

He began his 31 years with the Union School District in 1957, teaching fifth grade at Lone Hill School. He was a teacher, a district administrative assistant, director of administrative services, director of personnel services -- and a principal, three times.

He enjoyed the four former jobs; he loved those latter three, said his colleagues and friends.

''Every time I'd turn around, LaRoy would be with the kids," said his district boss, former Superintendent Art Doornbos.

Mr. Green was at the district office after the boom enrollment years of the 1950s and '60s. Union dropped from 11,000 students to 6,000, closed seven schools and laid off 300 teachers, Doornbos said. "That was really tough for LaRoy. He was a real people person."

But Mr. Green's return to a principal's job at Oster School may not have been as much because of his aversion to the layoffs as it was "the fact that he loved being close to the kids," said Doornbos, recently retired as superintendent of the Santa Clara County Office of Education.

Parents and teachers alike marveled at how children would cluster around Mr. Green. "He was a hands-on principal," said Annick Negrini, a parent and School Site Council member and leader. "You'd see him outside before and after school. ''My mother, when she saw LaRoy Green out on the playground, said, 'That is a principal.' "

Mr. Green's fellow principal and friend, Bud Mardock, said, "It was because of his winsome attitude. He enjoyed teasing, always teasing -- he enjoyed every minute of it."

In a full-circle return, Mr. Green closed out his service to Union with four years at Lone Hill.

That's where Negrini met him. "I was lucky enough that we developed a bond of friendship even though he was 20 years older. We would sometimes just talk about anything and everything. I am a former schoolteacher. That man explained to me the ins and outs of education. . . . He taught me how to work with the teachers."

Her two sons got a superior education because of that guidance, Negrini said. ''If you think I'm describing a saint," she said, "it's pretty close to it." Even when Mr. Green retired in 1988, he couldn't retire. He worked as a consultant with the Union district and served as interim principal and substitute teacher at Alta Vista School.

He stepped in as an interim principal while the Alum Rock School District was looking for a replacement at Linda Vista School.

He and Joyce, his wife of nearly 38 years, decided to build a retirement home in Twain Harte. He did "yard duty" as a volunteer at the school there, said his daughter, Debra. But he also confessed to Chambers, "I don't think I spent three straight weeks up there. I kept coming back to see my kids in San Jose."

He encouraged Debra Fowler, one of the parents in the district, to run for the school board, and she won -- and then lost last spring in a recall near the end of her term.

Her two sons were like the hundreds of other children who saw Mr. Green as a grandfather.

''My children loved being at school. He loved them, related to them."

When she told her older son, Ken, who is 15, that his principal had died, he said, "Just think, Mom, now he's in heaven and all the children can have him."

Born: Feb. 11, 1929, Chillicothe, Texas. Died: Nov. 14, 1994, Morgan Hill, Calif. Survived by: Wife, Joyce, of Twain Harte; son and daughter-in-law, Gary and Cindy Green of Tracy; daughter and son-in-law, Debra and Jack Lincoln of Morgan Hill; mother, Rena Green; brother, Foy Green, both of Sedona, Ariz.; sister, LaNelle Rubush of Albuquerque, N.M.; four grandchildren. Services: Memorial at 7 tonight at Los Gatos Christian Church; private burial. Memorial: Donations may be made to the LaRoy Green Memorial Fund to benefit the children of the Union School District, 5175 Union Ave., San Jose, Calif. 95124.

LAROY GREEN, 'HANDS-ON' EDUCATOR

Mr Albert F Callopy, 80

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