Greene, Earnest S. (1903-1989)
Date Updated
10-9-2019
Department
Physics
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
1968
Educational Background
Stanford University, 1939 Ph.D.
Stanford University, 1930 MA
San Jose State, 1927 AB
Teaching Experience
San Jose State University, 1927-1968
Employee Classes for Eitel‑McCullough, 1950
Army Classes at Stanford, WWII
Administrative and Professional Experience
Jennings Radio, WWII.
Selected Publications
Principles of Physics, Prentice‑Hall.
Lab Manual, General Physics.
Lab Manual, Physics of Sound.
Files
Personal Commentary
Prepared by Dorothy Givens Greene
Two years at Stanford depleted Earnest's lifelong‑savings‑for‑college. He stayed out of school for a year, but you've heard of the GREAT DEPRESSION? So he earned his AB at San Jose State Teachers' College, and since it was a teachers' college, he was obliged to do student teaching. Luckily for Earnest, the science department needed an instructor for a Saturday morning chemistry lab; so that was given to him for his practice teaching assignment. Voila! Career goal changed from research chemist to college professor. I'm sure he was never sorry, because he lived
to see that light of comprehension in a student's eyes. I shall quote from his textbook, Principles of Physics, to show his idea of education.
"A mind open in the sense of a tube or tunnel is no help. Neither should your mind be open in the sense that the door to a warehouse may be open. It should be open in the sense that the receiving door to a factory is open: open to accept raw materials for use in fabricating various products which may be far more useful, beautiful, and valuable than the materials from which they were made ...."
As for me, his wife for 53 years, I'm sure that, of the thousands who passed through his classes in 41 years, several hundred learned to think.
Date Completed: 3/97
Adapted from: Biographies of Retired Faculty San Jose State University 1997: A Project of the Emeritus Faculty Association of San Jose State University. San Jose, CA: The University, 1997.