Cecil Green’s birthday was Thursday, but that fact would not be obvious to anyone walking past his final resting place toward the end of a long mausoleum hallway at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego.
Local attorney Tom Cerruti was surprised to find the tan stone sealing Green’s crypt blank when he stopped by to pay his respects earlier this year. While the location of Ida Green, Cecil Green’s wife, is marked with gold lettering, noting her birth in 1903 and passing in 1986, his final resting place, one level below his wife’s, is simply blank.
One might expect more for a man who co-founded Texas Instruments, the global semiconductor company worth more than $250 billion that Green and three others christened in 1951.
There are plenty of buildings that bear witness to the engineer-turned-philanthropist’s endless generosity. Some might think, for example, that Scripps Green Hospital is named for its adjacency to Torrey Pines Golf Course. But that’s not the case. Scripps renamed the facility in 1975 in honor of the Greens, who, by the time of his death on April 11, 2003, had given a range of local medical institutions more than $20 million.
Green was 102 when he died at the hospital that bore his name.
The couple had no children and dedicated their lives to giving away the millions that a successful career in engineering and business delivered.
Multimillion-dollar contributions named buildings in his honor at Oxford University, Stanford University and the University of Texas.
At the time of his death, his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, noted that his family name graced the tallest building on its campus.
Born in Manchester, England, on Aug. 6, 1900, Green’s contributions across the pond drew the attention of the peerage. Queen Elizabeth II knighted Sir Green in 1991 in acknowledgement of his charitable work.
How is it that a man literally feted by royalty has an unmarked grave in a city he loved and supported with millions in charitable contributions?
Calls to Greenwood cemetery for comment were not returned.
Cerutti said that he is working with Greenwood to get a marker put up, though it is not clear when that will happen.
“I don’t remember what they gave as an explanation, but they said it had been paid for, and it should be done,” Cerruti said.
While he only met Green once, Cerruti said he believes he should, at the very least, have his name visible there below his wife’s, as he clearly intended.
“I think it’s important that we remember and appreciate the philanthropists in our community who have given so much to us and made such an important contribution to our lives,” Cerruti said.
Darlene Shiley, one of San Diego’s best-known philanthropists, said that Cecil and Ida’s names were legend when she served on boards at Scripps Clinic. The idea that his grave remains unmarked was difficult to believe, especially for someone whom she remembers as a humble soul.
“Appalling is the first thought that comes to me,” Shiley said.
In the end, Cerruti said, spelling out this man’s name properly is a goal that he intends to keep pushing for as long as is necessary.
“I suppose this is a very simple thing,” Cerruti said in an email after visiting Green’s crypt Thursday morning. “A grave should be marked; in this case, it is the grave of one of the most accomplished and generous members of our community.”