Greenes to be Named 'Friend of the University'

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Feb. 1, 2010 -- Douglas and Heather MacDonald Greene of Vancouver, Wash., and Rancho Mirage, Calif., will receive the 2010 Friend of the University Award from the Southeast Missouri University Foundation.

Kenneth W. Dobbins, president of Southeast Missouri State University, will present the award at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 5 in connection with a President's Council reception in the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall at Southeast's River Campus.

The Friend of the University award, which recognizes those who support and who are closely associated with the mission, purposes, plans and programs of the University, is the highest honor bestowed by the Southeast Missouri University Foundation. When the Foundation Board established the award, it also established the criteria for the Friend of the University. The Friend of the University must have the respect of the community and the University, and must have acted to confirm their interest and involvement with the University.

When told by Dobbins they were being named “Friends of the University,” the Greenes said they were overwhelmed. Being selected for such a prestigious honor came as a complete surprise to both Douglas and Heather, who quickly expressed their desire, "to continue to contribute time, energy and resources to our passions for advancing entrepreneurship and the arts at Southeast with the focus on keeping Southeast 'The University of First Choice.'"

Mr. and Mrs. Greene have been longtime supporters and entrepreneurial advisors to Southeast.

Following his graduation from Marietta College, Mr. Greene began his career with Sears Roebuck & Company in the executive training program. During his time at Sears, he served as a store manager, manager of  an experiential, start-up retailing operation in a suburb of New York City, and was responsible for introducing the Radial tire and Diehard battery to Sears stores. He worked at the company’s Chicago headquarters as the national buyer of lighting fixtures and fireplace equipment.

After 13 years with Sears, Mr. Greene left to take over a Portland, Ore., company that manufactured glass door firescreens, and went on to own or manage several other glass door firescreen companies before starting a new company that developed remote controls for gas fireplaces. Nicknamed the “Father of Fireplace Remotes,” Mr. Greene grew the company into an innovative, worldwide business venture.

He sold the remote business in 2001 and founded Skytech Enterprises, a company specializing in the development of Infrared (IR) devices for pain management and skin care treatments. 

Mr. Greene has traveled extensively, sourcing products in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Japan, to Spain, (former) Yugoslavia and India.

Mrs. Greene has had an extensive career in business, fashion and film. She has produced, directed and created a number of award winning documentary and short films, many related to museum exhibitions.

Mrs. Greene has provided on-air talent on television and in films, including documentaries, commercials and music videos. She also has been a fashion model based in Boston and New York City for clients, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord and Taylor, Nieman Marcus, Filenes, Milo, D'Ambra designs, Piaf Perfume, eyeglass companies, Furriers, and Gulf and Western. In addition, she was a stock photographer for agencies in Boston and New York.

She has served as director of legal and paralegal personnel with the law firm of Goodwin Procter in Boston where she worked for 14 years. She has been a member of The National Association of Law Placement, Management Club of Boston, American Society of Magazine Photographers, Woman in Film and The American Film Institute.

Mrs. Greene has been a docent with The Amon Carter Museum with special focus on photography, film and American art. She has done motivational work with people challenged by spinal cord injuries and with those enduring cancer losses. She has served with auxiliaries to the American Medical Association and has been involved with charity productions for cancer and diabetes.

Mrs. Greene has attended Champlain College, Harvard University, the University of California-Los Angeles and the American Film Institute.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Greene have been actively involved at Southeast Missouri State University. Mr. Greene has been a guest speaker the past two years during Southeast's Global Entrepreneurship Week. In 2008, he served on a panel discussion on "global entrepreneurship." In 2009, he spoke about the challenges of starting a new entrepreneurial business and partnering up with other individuals and companies.

The Greenes have a strong commitment to providing students opportunities for success. A prominent example is the Heather MacDonald Greene Multi-Media Center, which opened in 2008. Located on the third floor of the library, the Center is one of a number of enhancements made recently in the library to create a new "Information Commons." The Multi-Media Center is available to students working on multi-media group presentations.

The Multi-Media Center consists of a reception area with three individual group production rooms adjacent to this space. Each group meeting room is equipped with a computer with Internet access, a camera, editing equipment, Smartboards, a table and chairs. The equipment allows students to produce their own multi-media presentations using video, produced by the students, and other technology. 

"So many class assignments now deal with team work," said Ed Buis, director of Kent Library. "If a small group of students is working on the creation of an advertisement, for example, they can actually produce it hands-on" in the multi-media room. "They can write and produce it and be the actors within in," all from this new facility.

The Greenes have also made gifts to establish three scholarships at Southeast. For the past two years, Mr. Greene has presented the Douglas C. Greene Award of Excellence in Entrepreneurialism during Global Entrepreneurship Week at Southeast. The scholarship is presented annually to an outstanding student at Southeast in recognition of the student's accomplishments in the field of entrepreneurship through contributions to the education, business and social community. The Greenes also have established a scholarship to benefit a student enrolled in the bachelor of fine arts program in musical theatre in the Department of Theatre and Dance and another for a student interested in working with the historic collections in the Special Collections & Archives section of Kent Library.

Mr. Greene, whose late first wife was a Southeast alumna, also established the Janet Paar Greene Endowed Scholarship through the Southeast Missouri University Foundation in her memory. This scholarship is awarded to an English major with preference given to students from Jackson, Mo., or Cape Girardeau County.

In 2006, Mr. Greene worked with an entrepreneurship class in the Harrison College of Business as student teams developed marketing plans for a product he developed -- a remote control for turning Christmas lights on and off to the sound of music with the touch of a button.

During Homecoming 2005, the Southeast Missouri State University Alumni Association named Mr. Greene a Distinguished Service Award recipient. The Distinguished Service Awards are presented to individuals who have made lasting contributions to their communities and to the University. Also during Homecoming festivities that year, Mr. Greene presented Southeast officials with a $50,000 Challenge Grant, in which he agreed to match alumni and friend donations to the Southeast Missouri University Foundation annual fund who had not previously made gifts to the Foundation or who increased their gifts from the previous year. Mr. Greene also was invited in 2002 to teach several lectures on campus.

In addition, Mr. and Mrs. Greene, along with Charley Greene, made a generous contribution in 2002 to the River Campus in the name of Mr. Greene's late first wife, Janet Paar Greene, who was an artist, to establish a traveling exhibition gallery in the Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp II Museum.