Obituary of David Thomas Green

David T. Green OBE, one of the co-founders of United States Surgical, once based in Norwalk, CT, died Saturday November 12th at his home in Easton, CT. He was Vice President of Research and Development at the company from its early inception until his retirement in 1995. At US Surgical, David Green revolutionized surgery with his designs of auto suture, laparoscopic and other surgical devices. His accomplishments in the field of auto suture are well known. At US Surgical, until his retirement, he was simply known as the “Wizard.” He created an entirely new technology that changed surgery and surgical technique forever. He is considered by many to be the “father” of auto suture. He was born in 1925 to William and Elizabeth Green, at home, in Biggleswade Bedfordshire England, forty miles miles north of London. He was one of six children. His father owned a local produce business and was known as the “asparagus king” of Bedfordshire. David Green’s father William died when he was only 7 years old. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, fifteen year old David Green, because of his mechanical aptitude, was already training to become a draftsman, a machinist, and a tool and die maker as part of his general schooling. His training continued in these areas as the war went on and in 1942 at the age of 18 he was deferred from military service to work on England’s Industrial War effort building vital aircraft components at Wheatherly Oil Gear in Biggleswade where he had apprenticed and worked. He began the war as one of forty machinists, tool, and die makers working long day shifts on the shop floor and attending technical school at night. By the end of the War, David Green had worked his way off the shop floor, was an engineer-draftsman and the shop floor leader of forty men. In spite of these achievements his deferment did not keep him from two years of military service and in 1946 he was drafted and sent to India to oversee the British transition of power to an independent India. He served as a sergeant major in the British army there and commanded an army motor pool. On his return to his mother’s home in Biggleswade, he married Jeanne Todd in 1951 who had lived across from him on the A1 London road his whole life. They honeymooned in a car David Green had built by hand. Shortly after their wedding, they immigrated to Georgetown, Canada in 1952 where David Green worked for Canada’s aircraft builder Avro in nearby Malton and assigned to work on the innovative swept delta wing jet fighter, the Arrow. The program was canceled in February 1959. In one day 15,000-30,000 workers and vendors lost their jobs. David Green was one of them. He was lucky and quickly found work in the American automobile factories in Windsor across from Detroit but the two hundred mile commute each way meant working long day shifts weekly and commuting home for short weekend visits. It was hard. The Avro layoffs began one of Canada’s greatest “brain drains” in its history. Many of the companies talented laid off engineers and other workers immigrated to the United States and went on to work at NASA, premier aeronautical firms and innovative companies in America. David Green was no exception. In 1961, he and his wife, son and daughter moved to Westport, Connecticut in the United States to lay claim to the American dream. He worked for AMF in Stamford heading up a team to develop the first catalytic converter to cut down on automobile emissions. For the next four years, including some time spent in Los Angeles, CA, where the families second son was born, David Green and his team perfected the first working marketable automobile catalytic converter. The auto companies refused to buy it from AMF insisting on using their own catalytic converters developed in-house. The AMF program ended and America would wait ten years before the first catalytic converters were put on cars in 1975. David Green moved on to work for a boutique engineering consultant firm back in Connecticut where he specialized in mechanical engineering. In 1965, he met Leon Hirsch an entrepreneurial businessman who was looking for engineering services from the firm to improve a surgical auto suturing device acquired from the Soviet Union. David Green took on the project. In 1967, Mr. Green joined Mr. Hirsch to head Research and Development at United States Surgical. Their new company went on to forever change the way surgery was done. At last count 247 US patents have been issued to Mr. Green. In 1991, the Patent Lawyers Association of New York gave him the Inventor of the Year Award for revolutionizing surgery with the instruments he had developed for the laparoscopic gall bladder procedure. Recognizing it was the greatest step forward for surgery in the last 600 years of medical history. He was the recipient of a Medal of Honor from French surgeons and given the key to the city of Biarritz. In 2005, he received his OBE from Queen Elizabeth of England for his contribution in changing surgery forever. He was an avid yachtsman and big game sports fisherman and was a long time member of Chubb Cay Club in the Bahamas. He summered in Connecticut, the Hamptons and wintered in Palm Beach, Florida. His first wife Jeanne pre- deceased him in 2006. He is survived by his wife Alana Moran Green of Easton, CT, his sister Brenda Thompson of Sandy England, his sons Lawrence Green of East Hampton NY, Peter Green and his wife Doreen of Norwalk, CT, his daughter Lynn Ford and her husband Brian of Reedville, VA, a grandson Jason Green of Point Reyes CA, his bonus step children Patrick Rotondi of Tahoe, CA, Brendon Rotondi of Easton, CT, Siobhan Del Duca and her husband Jack of Philadelphia, PA, Michaela Rotondi of Bridgeport, CT and Jacqueline Rotondi of St James, NY. Those wishing to make a donation in Dave’s memory may do so to the Chaifetz Family Hospice of the Jewish Senior Services, the Easton Senior Center, The Carter Center or the World Wildlife Federation. To send on-line condolences to the family visit www.nutmegcremation.com