Francis 'Bill' Green, 82; owned restaurants, dance studio
Francis Wilfred "Bill" Green was not your ordinary 9-to-5 guy. In a world of buttoned-down executives, Mr. Green not only broke the mold but he became involved in so many enterprises, even his close-knit family had a hard time keeping track of them.
At various times, he owned a restaurant-ballroom-amusement complex in Mendon, a Brockton saloon, and was a partner in a Milford pub; was a dancer and dance-studio owner; and founded a bartending school with 10 New England offices. He also was a decorated World War II veteran.
He was no Walter Mitty, the hero of a James Thurber short story who imagined himself in many different roles and heroic fantasies. "Mitty did it all in his imagination. Bill did it all in reality," said Frank Coyle of Swampscott, his friend of 40 years.
Mr. Green died Aug. 30 in his Yarmouth home of congestive heart failure, his family said. He was 82. He had lived in Wilbraham for 23 years before moving to Yarmouth in October.
"Bill was never a passive observer," said his brother James, of Marblehead. "He was forever restless and searching for new challenges." His wife, Lydia, called him "a renaissance man."
"The word failure was not in his vocabulary," she said.
Mr. Green was born in Boston, the oldest of eight children of Francis Wilfred and Ethel (McCashin) Green. His father was a peddler who bought fruits and vegetables at Faneuil Hall and sold them in Quincy, where he had an established route. Most of the children, including Bill, were raised in Quincy.
Mr. Green left home at 14 to live and study at Norfolk Agricultural School in Walpole, graduating in 1942 as president of his class. He joined the Army Air Force in 1943. "Bill had wanted to be a jet pilot," his brother said.
He served as a nose gunner on a B24 fighter and for his service received the Air Medal with a four-leaf oak cluster. Like many veterans, Mr. Green did not talk about his wartime experience in Italy, France, and Germany.
"It was difficult to know Bill Green," his brother said in his eulogy, "because he was a private person and deeply modest. He had successes in many fields, some of which we have learned only after his death."
After the war, he worked as a milkman for Garelick Farms, his family said. After that, he launched his dancing career.
Relatives said they did not know exactly how Mr. Green started dancing or where he took lessons. But in an e-mail, James Green said his brother performed adagio dancing for three years at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.
Mr. Green married Viola Palm, a member of the June Taylor Dancers, and together they opened and managed nine Palm Dance Studios on the South Shore. The couple later divorced.
"Bill was just a naturally talented person," said Coyle, who knew Mr. Green when he was married to Palm. "They would give lessons and go through the Borscht Belt in the Poconos in the summer."
Lydia Green said Mr. Green received a certificate from the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in London "for being the first American to be certified in international style."
From 1958-1979, he owned and managed the Flame and Sword Restaurant and the Lakeview Ballroom & Amusement Park in Mendon. In the 1,500 capacity ballroom, his brother said, Mr. Green booked entertainers such as Guy Lombardo, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey and later rock groups including Aerosmith and Blood, Sweat & Tears.
In 1974, Mr. Green started the Boston Bartenders School of America. His future wife was one of his students, and is now its president.
He also owned the Flashback Saloon in Brockton and was co-owner of the Red Vest Pub in Milford.
Mr. Green was not shy about delving into the details of his ventures, when the need arose. His wife recalled that once, when the chef at one of his restaurants "just took off at the sight of the first snowflake, Bill took over and did the cooking for about 250 guests and continued until another cook was hired."
Mr. Green was still thinking like an entrepreneur on his sickbed.
"When I visited him recently, I asked him what he'd do if he won a $2 million lottery," said another brother, Donald, of Milton. "He said he'd buy another restaurant. He loved the business."
In addition to his wife and his two brothers, Mr. Green leaves one daughter, Sharon Holloway of Salt Lake City; two sons, Ronald of Lynnwood, Wash., and Richard, of Daly City. Calif.; and five sisters, Patricia Racette of Quincy, Louise Hunnell of Fort Myers, Fla., Donna Gounaris of Yarmouth, Rosemary Beau of Orleans, France, and Connie George of Umatilla, Ore.
Burial was in National Cemetery in Bourne. 