Greene, Leonard M. 1918-2006 (Leonard Michael Greene)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 8, 1918, in New York, NY; died of complications from lung cancer, November 30, 2006, in Mamaroneck, NY. Inventor, engineer, businessperson, philanthropist, and author. Well known as the inventor of a device that warns airplane pilots of a potential stall, Greene was the founder of Safe Flight Instrument, as well as the Institute for SocioEconomic Studies, a policy think tank. An alumnus of the City College of the City University of New York, he earned his B.S. in 1937 and M.S. in 1939. After working as a research chemist, he was an aerodynamics engineer and test pilot for the Grumman Aircraft Corporation during World War II. One day, he witnessed a small plane crash because it had stalled, and this inspired him to invent the alert system that is now standard equipment on all aircraft. An energetic engineer, he would go on to hold about two hundred patents on various inventions. Greene founded Safe Flight Instrument in 1946, a White Plains, New York, company now run by his son. He also founded the Institute for SocioEconomic Studies to conduct research on everything from health care and tax policies to welfare reform and foreign affairs. Greene became especially interested in this last subject after one of his sons was killed during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A philanthropist, as well, he used his expertise with airplanes to help found the Corporate Angel Network, a nonprofit that provides free air travel to cancer victims who need access to services in distant hospitals. Greene's publications concern tax policy and welfare reform, and include A Plan for a National Demogrant Financed by Value-Added Tax (1976), Free Enterprise without Poverty (1981), and The National Tax Rebate: A New America with Less Government (1998). He was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991 for his many contributions, and was the recipient of many other honors, mostly for his work in aviation safety.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New York Times, December 12, 2006, p. A29.

Washington Post, December 6, 2006, p. B7.