Hazard Herald

Hazard Community & Technical College has received its largest individual gift in the entire history of the school. This gift by Mr. Green has been planned for some time and has become a part of this year's Fulfilling the Promise fund raising campaign.

George F. Green's sizeable gift, which is to be used to award scholarships to students who have been accepted into one of HCTC's allied health programs, is large enough to have an entire wing of the First Federal Center named in his family's honor. A ceremony will be held in the future to name the wing.

"Hazard Community & Technical College is one of the best things that ever happened to Hazard," Green said, when asked about his generous gift. "I am a firm believer in education and HCTC has done an excellent job of providing services for the kids of Eastern Kentucky to be able to get an education," Green said. "Hazard is my home; I love the mountains, and most of the mountain people."

HCTC President Jay K. Box applauded George Green and his decision to make the gift to the College. "George Green wants his gift to be used entirely for scholarships and we very much appreciate his decision because whether a student obtains a scholarship often determines whether they enroll in college. We are extremely appreciative of his gift."

George Green family history

His father, John G. Green, an electrical engineer, came to Hazard in 1917 as manager of the Lothair power plant, a part of KY-WVa Power Company. The plant was a coal producing power plant. In 1919, he started his own company, Mine Service Company. "My father was very community minded, he served on many committees and civic clubs and he was one of the main people that raised the money and made sure that the Memorial Gym was built," Green said of his father. The elder Green was killed in a car accident in 1951.

In 1953, George Green started working full-time at Mine Service Company. He took full control of the company in the early 1960s. From there he opened three more companies --Christopher Steel, Oxygen of Kentucky and Interstate Supply of Huntington, West Virginia. Oxygen of Kentucky and Interstate Supply served all of the ARH hospitals by providing the medical gases and liquid oxygen. He was the president and owner of all of these companies until he sold them in the mid-1980s. He employed approximately 150 people at his four companies with branches in three states.

Green then went to Central Florida where he entered the orange grove business, but when he saw the second big freeze he decided to go into the real estate development business instead. He worked in the development business from 1994 to 2004. He went into semi-retirement in 2004.

Green and his late wife, Betty Deaton Green, have three sons: Gordon of Hazard, George of Lexington, and John of Leesburg, Florida.