Telecommunications engineer Don Green, known as the “Father of Telecom Valley” in Petaluma as well as half the couple behind Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center, died Monday in Mexico while on vacation.
Green, who turned 90 on May 12, had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for 17 years. With his wife, Maureen, Green led the way to finance the construction of the Green Music Center with an initial donation of $10 million in 1997. Maureen Green died on Nov. 6, 2020.
Green’s co-founding of Optilink in 1987 gave birth to Sonoma County’s Telecom Valley, a hub of innovation that flourished from the mid-1990s until the middle of the next decade.
“He was a very steady leader who never got upset or berated people,” said John Webley, one of Green’s early hires at Optilink and later his business partner in Advanced Fibre Communications and close friend for more than 30 years.
Webley remembered Green as a larger-than-life personality who besides his telecom business ventures did so much for Sonoma County through his philanthropy and generosity.
“He was behind so many charities,” he said of Green. “He did a lot of community work quietly.”
Rich Stanfield, who went to work for Green as vice president of sales at Advanced Fibre in 1994, called him a mentor and a great friend.
“Don was a guy I would do anything for — best boss I ever had, by far,’’ said Stanfield, who had no intention of relocating to the North Bay but after flying here with his wife for dinner with Green and his wife, he accepted the job at Advanced Fibre.
“He’s the most authentic person you’d probably ever meet in your life.”
Green wrote a memoir, “Defining Moments,” in 2016 that traces his life from his working-class roots in England to his successful career in Canada from 1956 to 1960 and to California starting in 1960.
The Greens moved to Santa Rosa in 1987 and started singing in the Sonoma State University Concert Choir, then helped start Sonoma Bach choir, that was founded in 1991at Sonoma State.
They also were active members of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa and sang with the church choir.
His dream of a world-class music hall was realized on Sept. 29, 2012, when the Green Music Center held its grand opening.
While he was synonymous with the music center, Green also left a lasting imprint and contribution to Sonoma County business and industry through his pioneering work in technology innovation.
In its heyday in the late 1990s, Petaluma’s Telecom Valley was comprised of 60 or 70 little tech companies employing about 5,000 people. These entrepreneurial ventures were laying the groundwork — literally the cable lines — to connect to what later became known as the information superhighway, today commonly called the internet.
Green's Optilink was "the seed" and, from it, there was a "huge explosion of mental resources," said Webley, who now runs Trevi Systems, a water purification tech company in Rohnert Park and was a financial contributor to construction of Green Music Center.
Webley and Stanfield are examples of Green's many colleagues who went on to start their own tech-based companies. And Green often became an investor or board member, or both, in those enterprises. Stanfield now runs Tibit Communications in Petaluma, maker of a device that fits in the palm of a hand and enables high-speed digital connections to homes, businesses and cellular towers.
Telecom Valley essentially petered out during what Webley described as the "epic meltdown" of the U.S. tech industry in 2001, mainly because it was an overbuilt sector. Many also may recall that period as the bursting of the tech bubble.
Many of those early tech startups grew up in south county and then sold their stock shares to investors after initial public offerings, or were acquired by larger players across the vast telecom and computer hardware and software field.
However, some of those entrepreneurs like Webley and Stanfield continue developing new technology in Sonoma County. They credit Green for his hands-on influence and guidance.
"A lot of people point back to Don. He was the leader behind all of this," Stanfield said of the early wave of tech energy and innovation abundant in Telecom Valley.
Outside his business pursuits, Green's close friends said he enjoyed music, tennis, ping pong, travel and spending time at his second home in Sea Ranch near the Pacific Ocean.
Webley who last spoke to his friend three or four days ago said, although Parkinson's took a toll on Green's body, "his mind was sharp."
Webley fondly remembered traveling around the world on business with Green. He said Green's philosophy was to offset the rigors of logging countless miles of airplane travel by relaxing with delicious food and wine at fine restaurants wherever he went.
Green would say you have to "treat yourself" and he'd order a "good plate of food and nice bottle of wine," and enjoy the company of his friends or business associates, Webley said.
Green also studied birds and named the grape vineyard and boutique winemaking operation he had with his daughter after one of them, the Black Kite, which inhabit Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
Asked what people in Sonoma County who might associate his name with Green Music Center but didn't know him should remember about technology business pioneer, philanthropist, global traveler, music lover Green, Stanfield said: "He was a great man. One of a kind."
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June 30, 2021 at 07:13AM
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Don Green, man behind SSU’s Green Music Center and ‘Father of Telecom Valley,’ dies at 90 - North Bay Business Journal
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