Jack Green, former mayor, dies at 79

Jack Green, a former Huntington Beach mayor and champion of the

city’s Central Park and Central Library, died Saturday of congestive

heart failure after a long illness. He was 79.

“Jack was a real forward-looking gentleman,” former Mayor Ralph

Bauer said.

Green was one of the early pioneers of the open-space movement in

Huntington Beach, working with government officials and hundreds of

private landowners to create the large park in north-central

Huntington Beach.

Green was elected to the City Council in 1966 and served for eight

years, including a one-year stint as mayor in 1969. In 1968, Bauer

and others unsuccessfully placed before voters a bond to raise money

to acquire the land needed to build Central Park.

With the help of Green, the initiative was placed on the ballot

again in 1969 and received approval from nearly 72% of city voters,

generating $6 million to match federal and state contributions for

the project. Green later helped allocate $3 million for the

construction of the Central Library.

“He shared Don Shipley’s and my vision to have the library,” said

former mayor Norma Gibbs, who served with Green on the council. “He

was a good visionary -- he wanted the best.”

The most difficult part of building Central Park was finding the

hundreds of property owners who had a stake in the land, Gibbs said.

At the beginning of the century, the Encyclopedia Britannica company

had purchased several undevelopable acres of land in Huntington

Beach, divided the land into 400 small lots, and gave a land deed to

anyone who bought an encyclopedia set.

“We had to track down hundreds of owners,” Gibbs said. Often the

original purchasers had died, Gibbs said, and passed the deeds on to

their children. “A lot of them didn’t know about the land. It was a

terrible job, and it took years.”

Today the park is home to the Shipley Nature Center and two small

restaurants. It is considered the largest municipal park in Southern

California.

Green was born in Altadena, served in the Navy during World War

II, and moved from Temple City to Huntington Beach in 1961. He made a

living as an insurance investigator.

In 1971, Green became executive director of the Regional

Anti-Pollution Authority of Coachella Valley, where he aided desert

valley cities grappling with the consequences of rapid residential

growth. Three years later the City of Los Angeles tapped him to

become the first general manager of the newly formed Department of

Environmental Quality, where he implemented a new state-mandated

environmental review process.

Green also served as president of the California League of Cities,

president of the Southern California Assn. of Governments and as a

member of several state commissions as an appointee of then-Gov.

Ronald Reagan.

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Marty; daughter Belinda

Gordon and her husband Tim, of Boise, Idaho; sons Michael Green and

his wife Barbara, of Huntington Beach, John Green and his wife

Melanie, of Wabash, Ind., Daryl Green and his wife Kelly, of Costa

Mesa, and James Green of Huntington Beach; and nine grandchildren.

A funeral mass will be held Friday at St. Bonaventure Catholic

Church, 16400 Springdale St., Huntington Beach.