Green Music Center philanthropist to mark memoir’s release

Don Green invites us to what looks to be a fabulous occasion at the performance complex at Sonoma State University that bears his and his wife’s names.

Green has written an irresistible book about his life, among its milestones the founding of the North Bay’s Telecom Valley and the quest for a respectable college vocal-music hall that led to the creation of the Donald & Maureen Green Music Center.

Green’s ex-secretary, Lynn Woolsey, now the retired ?10-term congresswoman, calls “Defining Moments” a great read reflecting the author’s “honesty, humility and his sense of humor.”

She adds, “It teaches through example that it is possible to reach success without losing self.”

Novel-like, the book recounts: Green’s 1931 birth in Liverpool; his war-displaced childhood, the years he self-educated with The Children’s Encyclopedia; his good fortune as a teen to meet Maureen Eustace; his introduction to telephone technology through an apprenticeship with Britain’s General Post Office; his and Maureen’s emigration to Canada; their young family’s move to San Francisco in an old blue Plymouth; Don Green’s first substantial telecommunications innovation; his discovery at church that perhaps he could sing; the 1969 founding of his first company; Digital Telephone Systems, or DTS; coming to Sonoma County; much telecom intrigue and evolution; Green’s discovery of the concert choir at Sonoma State; his family adventures; the conception of the Green Music Center; Green’s 2006 diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease; Maureen’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease; and the decision by her husband, now 84, “to be grateful for what I had rather than sad for what I’ve lost.”

Green will bring copies of “Defining Moments” to the celebration that starts at 2 p.m. on Oct. 22 at the Green Music Center. Admission is free, and Green will donate proceeds of the book sales to the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestras.

He asks that if you’d like to attend you shoot an email to definingmomentsmemoir@gmail.com.

Green will speak, members of the youth orchestras will play, Sonoma Bach founding music director and retired Sonoma State music professor Bob Worth will emcee, actor and former SSU Associated Students President Tim Kniffin will read excerpts and there will be refreshments and, of course, the signing of books.

HHHHHH

PRO TENNIS ISN’T something you see much of hereabout.

Greg Weksel yearns to see more kids and adults take up what he thinks is the greatest game on earth, whether or not newcomers ever play for trophies or pay.

To ignite local interest in tennis, Weksel, the tennis and racquetball director at the Airport Health Club, is bringing in two pros for an exhibition at the club on Thursday evening.

They are Canadian Davis Cup competitors Philip Bester and Peter Polansky. They’re coming this way to compete in the Tiburon Challenger tournament.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, they’ll play at the Airport Club. The $35 admission, $30 for Airport Club members, includes yummies from Underwood Bar and Grill.

To reserve a space, email gregw@airportclub.com.

“This is a unique event for Sonoma County,” says the tennis instructor, “and I’m putting it on to try to attract more kids to the game.”

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.