Dr. Paul E. Greene, 74, of Talking Rock, passed from this life to the eternal life with Jesus Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. He was a member of the North Canton Baptist Church.
He was born Jan. 4, 1947, in Macon to James and Jeannette Greene.
After graduation from Mt. De Sales Academy in 1965, he attended South Georgia College for two years and then graduated from the University of Georgia in 1969.
He entered the U.S. Army in August of 1969. He was ultimately assigned to the U.S. Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Okla., where he was an instructor in computer directed artillery fire.
One of his responsibilities was to instruct South Vietnamese artillery officers in the proper use of the M13 field artillery automatic digital computer to calculate accurate fire for a variety of artillery weapon systems.
Later, he was assigned to the 2nd BN of the 15th Artillery and was stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska where he graduated at the top of his class from the UA Alaska NCO Academy at Fort Richardson. His last military assignment was to the 1st BN 94th FA in Furth, Germany.
After he left the Army, he completed his education earning master, specialist and Ph.D. degrees in science education. He taught several years at Gilmer High School, and 28 years at Lithia Springs High School in Douglas County. Dr. Greene began his college career teaching evening classes for the University of West Georgia and Mercer University. He then accepted a full-time teaching position with the Piedmont University School of Education in 2002, where he taught graduate-level research and supervised doctoral candidates until retiring from full-time status in 2013. He continued to teach part time for Piedmont for several more years.
He received numerous awards for his teaching at the secondary and college levels including three presidential awards for Excellence in Science Teaching, International Educator of the award from IBC in Cambridge, England, Tandy Technology Scholars Prize, Presidential Commendation for Outstanding Achievement in Environmental Service and several “Who’s Who” recognitions. He was a National Science Fellow, ACT Consultant, Planetary Society MARSLink site coordinator, member of SASS and a life member of the veterans of America.
He was a participant in the NASA teacher in space program. He founded and developed the Lithia Springs Ecocube Program with incorporated a 512 foot plexiglas enclosure in which environmental research was conducted for 11 years. This program was recognized by Claus Nobel and other sources as an outstanding research endeavor. He published over two dozen research articles and did numerous presentations at various professional meetings and conferences.
He is survived by beloved wife, Evelyn Morris (Land) Greene; stepchildren, Del Land (Tamara), of Ellijay and Susan (Kent) Shelton, of Powder Springs; five grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and brother, James Greene (Bonnie), of Breighton, Colo.
Funeral services were held at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 26, 2021, from the chapel of Bernhardt Funeral Home with the Rev. Caleb Land and the Rev. Aaron Land officiating.
Interment was in Cherokee Memorial Park.
Bernhardt Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.