Richard Alvaro Green

Richard Alvaro Green of Pocatello, ID passed away at home with his family on July 21 2015.
Richard was born on February second, Groundhog's day, in 1937 to Annie May (Grover) & Daniel Clark Green. His middle name Alvaro came from his Grandpa Grover. He was preceded in death by his parents and his older sister Alice (Brown), his sister in law Kaye (Bruce) Green, nephew Chris Green, niece Carol Ann Green, grandson- Ben (Jena) Thomas, great grandson- Christian Green, and nephew Adam Hoggan. He is survived by his wife Diane (Hoggan) brothers and sisters; Robert (Lorna) Green, Dean (Marcia) Green, Bruce (Kaye) Green, and Jeanne (Gene) Sherman, as well as his children Michael (Sharilyn) Green, Susan (Michael) Barger, Scott (Lori) Green, Cathy (Stan) Hatch, Karen Green, Danny Green, Stephen (Tiffany) Green, as well as numerous grandchildren & great grandchildren.
Richard was a mechanic at Garrett Freight Lines of Pocatello. His brother Dean got him a job there hauling trash and steam cleaning parts when he was about 15 years old. He later became what he referred to as a "Grease Monkey" servicing trucks; he then went on to become a Journeyman refrigeration mechanic. He also had a cleaning business, which started out as a wall washing business at Bannock Memorial Hospital. It then grew by word of mouth & personal referrals, from satisfied clients to a building maintenance and janitorial business at several medical buildings & doctor's offices. Several of his kids, and even his grandsons Cody Green & Alex Barger worked with him at all of his side jobs. He was a great example for work ethic, and for getting in and getting a job done thoroughly and efficiently. His grandson Cody was his most recent accomplice and enjoyed many drives to the country, and lunches at the Chinese joint while helping his grandpa take care of the medical building at Seventeenth & Clark. He continued to work maintaining medical buildings until about 2013 or so. He made friends with many of the office staff, nurses, & doctors at various medical offices, and had a lot of laughs with them. He helped many of these people with repairs, painting, and other projects at their homes. He repaired cars for many of the people he knew from his work over the years. He would never accept money from people when he fixed their cars or when they were down and out and need help with something broken at their homes. After he was laid off from Garrett's he spent several years as the mechanic for Trans West Truck Lines of Pocatello, ID. His ingenuity was limitless as he maintained a small fleet of junk equipment there with an almost non-existent maintenance budget. I (Danny) refer to him as a "Road Warrior" mechanic since he could always figure out some way to fix anything with whatever he had available and almost no money. I recall taking several trips with him to rescue broken down trucks all over southeast Idaho while he worked for Trans West. He was always very friendly with the drivers and often bought them lunch since they'd been stranded far from home for several hours. He invited a couple drivers to our home for meals and showers while their trucks were broken down and they were stuck in Pocatello and far from home. In the late eighties or early nineties he went on to become a machinist at the Union Pacific Rail Road working in various shops in Pocatello, Id. Over time he made friends with several of the guys at UP.
Dad coached the VFW baseball team with Deloy Giles for Mike & Scott when they played Bannock Boys baseball in their youth. Their first season was not very spectacular as they lost all of the games. Dad, always tenacious, bought some books on baseball and the next year he coached them in an undefeated season. They went on to the state championship taking second place. After state, dad coached the local All Stars team and they won several games. Dad would spend several hours with the older kids and neighbor kids playing catch and football in the street after he got home from work at Garrett's. Dad and mom enjoyed going to all of Mike, Scott, Cathy, & Karen's school sporting events. When I (Danny) wanted to play fifth grade basketball, myself and several other kids were cut from Tendoy's team. We were not having any luck finding a coach to make up a second team. Although dad was extremely busy working three jobs at the time, he managed to carve out time to coach our misfit team. We didn't win many, if any, games but we had a lot of fun, and a bunch of kids that wouldn't have gotten to play otherwise had the chance only because of dad. Dad also coached Stephen's fifth and sixth grade basketball teams, and they won half of the games both years.
Dad loved going to watch ISU play football or basketball with Scott & Cathy. We'd always wait until after half time so we could get in for free. I was just a little kid, so I only went along to eat cinnamon bears and run around. We found out Stephen was allergic to cinnamon when he was very little when his cheeks turned red and swelled up at one of the games. Dad enjoyed a few ball games with Scott's family at the University of Utah.
Richard was my father. Myself (Danny), & my brother Stephen considered our dad to be our best friend. He could be quite a character and always told the same corny jokes such as "Did you hear about the guy that goosed a ghost and got a handful of sheet?", or "I knew a guy that thought Grape Nuts was a venereal disease." There were many Richardism's like "don't take any wooden nickels"," a wet bird never flies at night", "people with big feet drive too fast"," hey you've got a republican haircut", "I don't wear suits because I don't want to be mistaken as a republican". All of dad's kids have fond memories laying out in the back yard while he told us about the stars, and told us stories. A favorite, that he even his grandkids were fortunate enough to hear as well, was about a Martian named Zonka. Zonka would land his flying saucer in our back yard, and fly us to Lagoon amusement park at night after it closed and start up all the rides with his magic wand. Then Zonka would fly us back home when the cops showed up at Lagoon because all the lights were on. Later, dad changed the story a bit for his granddaughters Sara, Hailey, and Ashley Green. He added a part where they all had a tummy ache the next day, and went the doctor. When the doctor looked down their throats he exclaimed "it's no wonder your stomach hurts, you're clear full of cotton candy." Another story was about Griswold the friendly bear and living in the frontier days, or dad would make our names into Robin Hood characters and put us into stories that took place in Sherwood Forrest. He would sing us songs like Ghost Riders in the Sky, Ring of Fire, Johnny Verbeck, or Soldier, Soldier. He would take us on little one night camping trips to Justice Park after he got off work. We'd always get there well after dark and have to set up camp with only the lights from the car. We'd build a fire, & warm up Dinty Moore beef stew for dinner, then after he'd tell stories and sing songs. We'd always take a jar of mom's pancake batter and bacon for breakfast. After, we'd hike around a bit or play in Mink Creek for a while then rush home so he could go back work.
Dad always had a love for boats. When I was little (between 4 and 7 years old), dad bought an old wooden jet boat that was built in the late 1950's from a friend that he worked with at Garrett's. It was painted blue & white with house paint. It had an engine from a Corvette, and it was really fast. We would take it to the South Fork of the Snake up at Swan Valley, or to Massacre Rocks. People would laugh and make fun of the boat because it looked like an old tub, but they'd always be shocked when they saw how fast it went. Several funny incidents happened in that old boat. At the South Fork one weekend Karen was reaching up under the side and got her fingers caught in the steering cables. I believe Scott threw the anchor over the side and it jerked the boat around. Karen was ok, the anchor was lost, but we had a great day. Another time dad, Susan, Cathy, & dad's friend Ike Kawmura were fishing on the treacherous area of the Snake River below the American Falls Dam. Earlier that day I (Danny) and my friend Todd Lieby had been playing "service station" and filled the gas tank on the boat with water from a garden hose. On the way to the river, when dad was filling the gas tank it didn’t take much gas. At the time he was bragging about how good the boat's gas mileage was, only to find out about the water in the tank when they were on the river and the engine quit. Dad was able to pump the water out and they were able to continue fishing. There is a light pole in the river there that has claimed the lives of many boaters over the years. Susan was driving the boat at the time, and they were just drifting the river while dad and Ike fished. Soon they were drifting toward the light pole, so dad told Susan to steer them away from it. Not knowing that a jet boat won't steer unless you give it gas, Susan just kept turning the wheel. She turned it so far that she ripped all the steering cables out of the boat. When dad realized Susan wasn't giving the boat any gas, he turned and hollered at her to hit the gas, only then did he see the steering wheel spinning free. Dad yelled to Ike to grab one of the steering cables so they could avoid the light pole, but Ike didn't realize the steering was broken and told my dad "Richard, you fix boat! I fish!" Dad finally got Ike to see how bad the boat was broken and they each took hold of one side of the steering cables while Susan operated the throttle. They narrowly escaped hitting the light pole which would have surely been the demise of them all. Dad sat on a bucket and steered the boat with just the cables and they continued to fish on the trip back to the dock. Afterward, at home, dad was repairing the steering cables and he needed someone to watch the jet nozzle so he could wind the cables around the steering pulley correctly. Susan happened to be there. Dad asked her twice if the nozzle was going the correct direction when he turned the wheel. Susan told him yes both times. A few days later, we had the boat up on the South Fork again. As usual, dad was having a rough time launching the boat because it did not have any reverse, and it was difficult to start, although once he got it started it always ran like a top. Of course there were lots of other boaters waiting at the dock to launch after dad. He was in a rush to get the old tub started, and the throttle stuck wide open. The boat lunged forward directly at the dock, dad spun the steering wheel to avoid the dock, and of course the steering cables were wound backward and the boat slammed hard into the dock. Miraculously no one was injured and the boat made it out with only a slightly large hole in the bow that stayed above the water line when the boat was up on plane. Of course dad didn't let the hole end our day, he re-wound the steering cables and we took the boat out anyway, with only a little water getting in when we slowed down. Of course there were a couple kids on bailing duty, but we had a great day.
Richard was always honest in all of his affairs. He was always quite gracious in his business dealings, often to a fault, charging only a fraction of what his work was worth. He always said he was "just a flunky", and that anyone could do the kind of work he did. He always said as long as he made enough to get by, it was plenty. He was possibly the most charitable person I know. He often gave food or money to transients he met while working for the railroad, and as a kid since he grew up near the railroad tracks. He would fix complete strangers' cars when they were stranded, often buying the parts for them and never accepting payment. His neighbor, and friend since high school, Ed Reese told me just today, that my dad would give anyone the shirt of his back and that he always held down three jobs and did his best to provide for our family. His lifelong friend Eddy Taylor once told a nurse at one of the doctor's offices my dad cleaned that "If Richard watched a doctor do surgery on someone just once, I'd let him operate on me". Dad had many great friends that respected him Dale Taylor, Denny Manning, and too many others to name. He was passionate about politics. He loved to debate politics with his kids, particularly Scott, Cathy, and Susan. Susan even got her degree in political science because of her dad's passion. Dad taught us of the importance of knowing what is going on in the world, and to be knowledgeable of what candidates stand for before casting a vote. He would often take an opposing view, often to the bane of one of his kids or his peers. Whether the person realized it or not, dad usually did so only to make them think about both sides of an issue and to help them understand that often politicians on both sides of an issue are corrupt, and not to just take one sides' story as gospel truth.
A life celebration for Richard will be held at the LDS "Stake House" on 930 East Alameda Rd. Saturday July 25 at 11:00AM. In lieu of flowers, please kindly make a donation to your local democratic party.