Dates

• Existence: 1925 - 2001

Biography

Alan "Punch" Green, Jr. was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1925. He got an early start in politics when he was elected student body president at Lincoln High School. He attended the University of Oregon in 1943 before enlisting in the U.S. Army, where he served as a theodylite observer in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was discharged after an injury and returned to Portland in 1945. He majored in political science at Stanford University and graduated in 1949. While at Stanford, he began dating Joan Irwin, whom he had met in high school. They married in 1949 and later had three children. He worked as an insurance salesman and later started a battery company. He was a lifelong member of the Republican Party, serving as chair of the Oregon presidential campaigns for Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, as well as statewide candidates such as Governor Vic Atiyeh and U.S. Senator Gordon Smith. He was president of the Port of Portland for two terms. President Reagan named him chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission in 1981. He was appointed as the ambassador to Romania by President George H.W. Bush in 1989 and served during the Romanian Revolution. After his ambassadorship ended in 1992, Green retired but continued his involvement in Republican politics. He died in 2001.

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