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“Learning anesthesiology from Nick Greene
was like learning astronomy from Galileo.”
— Anesthesia Resident Evaluation
 leader
in the field of anesthesiology died on December
28, at the age of 82. Nicholas Misplee Greene, M.D.,
has been described as one of the founding fathers
of modern anesthesiology. The son of the late Joseph
N. Greene and Nanine Pond Greene Pervere, Dr. Greene
was born July 11, 1922, in Milford, Connecticut.
He graduated from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut,
in 1944, and he earned his medical degree from Columbia
University in New York in 1946. After serving as
a surgical house officer at Presbyterian Hospital
in New York City and as a medical officer in the
U.S. Navy, he became a resident in anesthesia at
the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts,
later becoming a member of the staff of the Massachusetts
General Hospital and faculty of Harvard Medical
School. From Boston, Dr. Greene traveled to the
University of Rochester School of Medicine where
he served as a Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology
before he returned to New Haven in 1955.
Upon returning to Yale, Dr. Greene became the first
Professor of Anesthesiology at Yale University School
of Medicine. He established a new Department of
Anesthesiology and served as Yale’s first
Professor and Chair of the Department for 18 years.
During the subsequent 32 years, he nurtured and
supported the department and was honored in 2002
by the establishment of the Nicholas M. Greene Professorship
of Anesthesiology, an Endowed Chair. At that time,
the Betty Greene Research Fund in Anesthesiology
also was established, which paid tribute to the
“woman behind the man.” The Betty Greene
Research Fund was named for Elizabeth M. Greene,
wife of Dr. Greene.
A preceptor and mentor in medicine, he devoted himself
to teaching, research and patient care. Dr. Greene
served 26 years as editor and editor-in-chief of
Anesthesiology and Anesthesia &
Analgesia, two major North American journals.
His vision set both journals on new courses and
was instrumental in their growth and continued success.
His singular accomplishments will probably never
be surpassed.
Dr. Greene edited more than 10 books and more than
200 articles that reflected his interests in education
and physiologic changes associated with anesthesia,
especially those produced by regional and local
anesthesia, an interest formed while a fellow at
the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Infirmary
of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1950. He also was a
member of surgical and pharmacological advisory
committees at the National Institute of Research
in Bethesda, Maryland, in the 1960s and ’70s.
After becoming Professor Emeritus at Yale University
in 1987, Dr. Greene, who previously had worked as
a volunteer on the U.S.S. Hope and taught in several
East African anesthesiology departments, established
and served as the first Director of the Overseas
Teaching Program sponsored by ASA and the Foundation
for Anesthesia Education and Research. Located at
the University of Zambia’s Teaching Hospital
in Lusaka and the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical
Center in Moshi, Tanzania, the program centers on
the hypothesis that teaching medical care to Africans
is, in the long term, more effective in improving
the quality and availability of medical care in
the developing nation rather than short-term humanitarian
visits.
ASA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service
Award, was bestowed upon Dr. Greene in 1989. In
1993, Dr. Greene was again honored by ASA by being
named the Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lecturer.
In that year, he presented “The Changing Horizons
in Anesthesiology” at the ASA Annual Meeting,
remarking on his belief that anesthesiology had
expanded its horizon and activities above and beyond
the provision of surgical anesthesia. He proposed
that the discipline be known as “metesthesiology,”
explaining that modern anesthesiology extends outside
the operating room to patients with acute and chronic
pain.
In 1993, he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts
degree by Yale University and an honorary Fellowship
in the English Royal College of Anaesthetists. He
was an honorary member of the Japanese Society of
Anesthesiologists and the Ugandan Society of Anaesthesia.
In addition he served as president of the Association
of University Anesthesiologists and the New England
Societies of Anesthesiologists. He was a member
of the Connecticut Society of Anesthesiologists,
the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and
Pain Medicine and the International Anesthesia Research
Society. Dr. Greene also was awarded several medals
for his contributions to anesthesiology, including
the Columbia University College of Physicians and
Surgeon’s Silver Medal on the occasion of
its bicentennial as well as medals from the Swedish
Society of Anesthesiologists and the Koller Gold
medal from the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia.
A fervent ornithologist, he also was a member of
the American Ornithologists’ Union, the Connecticut
Ornithological Association, the American Birding
Association, the New Haven Bird Club and the National
Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy and the
Manomet Bird Observatory in Massachusetts.
Surviving are his wife of 58 years, the former Elizabeth
Miller; daughter Cynthia R. Greene of Barnet, Vermont;
son Nicholas Pond Greene, of London; and son Joseph
N. Greene II and wife Kristen of Mystic, Connecticut;
a brother, Joseph N. Greene, Jr.; a brother, William
M. Greene; and a sister, Elizabeth G. Luck; six
grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
Nick’s quest for excellence and dedication
to humanity will be his greatest legacy for our
specialty. He will be greatly missed.
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Roberta L. Hines, M.D., is Nicholas M. Greene
Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology, Yale
University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. |
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