Edward S. Green

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Edward S. Green, born in Syracuse on September 3, 1927, passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 2, 2017, following complications from a stroke on Valentine’s Day. No one who knows Eddie was surprised to hear that he was in the office, at age 89, on the day before his stroke.
“Think Big” was one of Eddie’s principal mottos in life, and his family nickname was “Big Ed.” He was also known to us as “Mr. Syracuse,” having been born, raised and educated in Syracuse, where he worked, raised a family, developed properties, mentored younger professionals and was devoted to every major community organization.
Eddie attended Nottingham high school, where he met his future wife, Joan Feder. They courted during his years at Syracuse University and her years at Cornell, and were married in 1949. They quickly went to work raising a family, living in DeWitt, and Eddie became a CPA and co-founded his initial accounting firm of Rudolph & Green. Realizing that he wanted a deeper understanding of the law to support his accounting work, he enrolled in law school at SU, while continuing his accounting practice. Upon graduation from law school, the accounting firm was joined by a companion law firm, and by 1981 the two side-by-side firms became Green & Seifter, a growing presence in the city.
Meanwhile, Eddie and Joan were raising 3 children, introducing them to the joys of winter in Syracuse and the outdoor life at camps in the Adirondacks and Ontario in the summer. These years included a multitude of hair-raising 8-hour drives to northern Vermont for family ski vacations, where Stowe became a home away from home, and where frostbite became a reality.
As his accounting and legal practices grew, Eddie naturally became introduced to, and deeply interested in, the many charitable, civic, educational, theatrical and arts organizations in Syracuse. During his professional career he served on the boards, and usually had a stint as chair, of the Syracuse Symphony, the Syracuse Jewish Federation, Everson Museum, Syracuse Stage, the Gifford Foundation, the Interreligious Council, the West Side Initiative, the Syracuse International Film Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, and the Community Foundation. Eddie was a trustee at his beloved Syracuse University for many years, where he also served on several committees under four separate Chancellors. He had a penchant for building projects in Syracuse and bringing in investors, and over the years was instrumental in the development, ownership or management of many properties, including Crouse Physicians Office Building, Limestone Tennis Club, The State Tower Building, Presidential Plaza, and the Marx Hotel.
Eddie and Joan eventually settled in Cazenovia in 1971, where they hosted and entertained rotating hordes of family, friends, business associates, charitable organizations and the occasional politician (including a memorable backyard fundraiser for Hillary Clinton during her first NY Senate campaign in 1999, to which then-President Clinton tagged along as well). As a Cazenovia resident, Eddie naturally got involved on the boards of Cazenovia College, the Cazenovia Area Community Development Association, and the Cazenovia Preservation Foundation. He was the #1 Fan of Joan’s gourmet cooking, and the principal beneficiary of her many Chinese, Italian and French banquets and her memorable Cazenovia summer barbeques. Eddie was serious about his physical fitness, and over the years was a tennis player, a swimmer, a runner (having completed the NY Marathon for his 57th birthday), and a skier, first in the early years in Vermont and during the last 30 years in Snowbird, Utah. He and Joan were devoted and adventurous travelers, and found themselves on many hiking and skiing trips to Europe, a safari in Tanzania and climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro to celebrate his 60th birthday, tours of China, Vietnam, Singapore, Russia, and many memorable educational trips with Syracuse University. He not only thought big, he showed us how to do it.
Eddie maintained his busy legal and accounting practice until retiring from Green & Seifter in 2000, at which point he founded an investment advisory firm, Edward S. Green & Associates, in association with his daughter Nancy.
Surviving are his wife of 67 years, Joan; children Jill (Bill Johnson) of Napa, CA; Bill (Diane Whitney) of San Francisco, and their two children Alexander and Whitney; and Nancy (Tony Marschall) of Cazenovia, and their two children Zachary and Ted. Eddie was preceded in death by his parents, Harold and Dorothy Greenstein, and his sister, Helen Pierson.
A memorial service and celebration of the life of Big Ed will be held at Temple Concord, 910 Madison Street, Syracuse, at 1:00 pm on Monday, March 6, with calling hours at the Temple preceding the service from 11:30 to 1:00. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to The Syracuse Jewish Federation or to The Francis House, where Eddie spent his last few days surrounded by his family and the loving and wonderful hospice staff and volunteers.
“Never Wait for a Better Day.”