SPS Today: An Enduring Legacy: John Kaul Greene '47
SPS Regional Scholarship Program Expanded to Include Tennessee
For Birmingham, Ala., native John Greene ’47, his years at St. Paul’s School were “transformational,” says his son, John Greene, Jr. ’85. “It took him from being an unruly Southerner onto a trajectory to go to Yale and then become a Marine.”
And, so, John Greene, Sr. wanted to share the same kind of experience with talented young people from his home state – and for more Southerners to attend St. Paul’s. In 2006, he established a remarkable scholarship program for SPS students from Alabama. Since then, the Greene Scholarship has provided not only full tuition and fees for four years, but also a complete experience that includes a computer, travel, and other expenses to ensure recipients can participate fully in their years at the School.
For 15 years, the scholarship has been awarded annually to a student from Alabama “who demonstrates strong leadership skills and the potential to make meaningful contributions to the School community.” John Greene died in 2019 at the age of 89, but with the wish that the scholarship in his name be expanded to Alabama’s northern neighbor of Tennessee, and including the same provisions as the original gift. The Greene Scholarship is now the School’s largest scholarship endowment. As details of the Tennessee portion of the scholarship are in discussion, Greene’s great-nephew, Charlie Nelson ’04, has agreed to manage the effort. Growing up in Nashville, Nelson remembers “Uncle Johnny” with tremendous affection.
“Everybody kind of put him on a pedestal,” he says, “but he was just one of those warm people who could have a conversation with you, no matter where you were in your life.”
The model scholarship for St. Paul’s students from a geographic region – the state of Montana – was founded in 1973 by the late Frank Hervey Cook of the Form of 1919. Since that time, six other regional scholarships have been established. Greene Scholar Mary Elmore DeMott ’16 is at Vanderbilt University, studying neuroscience and Spanish. DeMott, who grew up in Montgomery, Ala., recalls learning of the Greene Scholarship in the fourth grade. Years later, she persuaded her parents “to entertain the idea of sending their 13-year-old to school in New England.
“Mr. Greene’s gift to me is really the reason I’m here right now,” the pre-med student explains. “He was an incredibly kind and thoughtful person.”
While at SPS, DeMott communicated with Greene by telephone, e-mail, and letters. When she graduated, she says, “I was in the Choir, so I sent him all of the Choir programs from the weekend, information about an award I had won, and pictures, confetti, and some other things we had made. Since he wasn’t there, I wanted him to feel like he had been.”
John Greene, Jr. continues to serve on the board of trustees for the Alabama scholarship founded by his father. “I’m so thrilled,” he says, “to hear about Mary Elmore at Vanderbilt. It makes me smile, and I’m sure it would make my dad smile to know that she’s on a track to become a doctor or something else truly great.”