Alan Green; Noted Oregon Republican

Alan “Punch” Green, a prominent Oregon Republican who served as ambassador to Romania during former President George Bush’s administration, has died. He was 75.

Green died of heart failure Friday night at his home in Palm Springs.

“That’s a huge loss in many quarters--in business, in politics, in everything he did,” said former Oregon Gov. Victor Atiyeh, whose campaign Green chaired.

Green also led the campaign of former Oregon Gov. Tom McCall and headed the Oregon campaign committees of presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and the elder Bush.

In 1981, Reagan appointed Green, a two-term chairman of the Port of Portland, to be chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission. Green held the post for four years, and rated guiding the Shipping Act of 1984 through Congress as one of his proudest achievements.

He was named Oregon Republican of the Year in 1988.

In 1989, Bush named Green ambassador to Romania. He moved into the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest just two weeks before Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was executed.

Green evacuated women and children from the embassy grounds and slept on his office couch for 10 days as explosions rocked the surrounding city. He later told of waving an American flag from the embassy window to the cheers of Romanian crowds already celebrating Ceausescu’s overthrow.

In 1992, Green received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, an honor rarely bestowed on political appointees.

Green was born in Portland on May 1, 1925, and attended Lincoln High School, where he was student body president. He served with the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War II and graduated in 1949 from Stanford University.

He was chairman of the board and owner of Tom Benson Glass Co. before selling the company to his employees. He later owned Western Batteries Inc. of Beaverton, Ore. A recovering alcoholic, he helped found Comprehensive Care Corp., which provided treatment for alcoholism.

Survivors include his wife, Joan; daughters Carter Peterson, Kelsey Grout and Ladd Mengel; and eight grandchildren.