Le Grand Executif: Green's family, church, music at center of his

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jan 3, 2005 by Tommy Santora

During her 2003 campaign for the District 2 state Senate seat, Ann Duplessis and her staff were handing out pamphlets on the street.

But Duplessis said her campaign manager, Eugene Green, vanished.

His daughter had piano lessons that day, and it turns out he was taking lessons with her, said Duplessis, now a Democratic state senator representing New Orleans. They had to prepare for an upcoming recital and Eugene didn't want anybody to know he played the piano.

Green studies easy classical to modern music, and his favorite piece is Sonatina by Muzio Clementi, a song he played at St. Augustine High School.

I stopped playing as a teen when (I) was too cool to play piano, then I started up again a year and a half ago, said Green, who practices and studies at Watkins Academy School of Music with his two youngest children, Melanie, 8, and Jonathan, 6.

Music, church and family play a large role in Green's life outside the New Orleans Regional Business Park offices. When Green isn't playing piano, he spends time watching his children's soccer games and gymnastics meets, venturing out on Boy Scout field trips, blowing up toy balloons with his family Thursday nights at Piccadilly Cafeteria and donating his fund-raising and choir efforts to Bethany United Methodist Church in New Orleans.

Green's late father, Eugene J. Green Sr., heavily influenced his son in music as a director of the Bethany youth choir, sanctuary choir and the men's singers.

Music was always in the equation, said Green. There was always a piano in the house and sheet music around.

After Green's father passed away six years ago from liver disease, Eugene Green and his mother Jeanne started the Foundation for Spiritual Music Development, an annual music program honoring influential church musicians, in memory of his father.

After his dad passed, Eugene recognized that he had to take care of the family, said his wife, Jennifer Green. His motto was always, 'Let Dad take care of it.'

Eugene met his wife, a Brooklyn native, while attending Harvard University.

When I first saw him, he had his high school letter jacket on, said Jennifer Green. I knew he wasn't big enough to be a football player and I never saw him in sneakers. I later found out he got the letter for being in the band and playing the baritone horn in high school and I had no idea they gave out letters for that.

The couple married in 1983, moved to New Orleans and had three children - Eugene III, now a 15-year-old sophomore at St. Augustine, and Melanie and Jonathan.

My kids and my wife are my motivation, said Green. If I work harder in my business life, my kids can go to the best schools and receive the opportunities they need to become successful.

Eugene Green's oldest son plays on St. Augustine's soccer team, which had its inaugural game last month. Green helped his alma mater field the soccer team this year, and was cofounder of the University of New Orleans recreational coed youth soccer league in 1997.

At Bethany United Methodist Church, Green parlays his business expertise and management skills into the campaign manager job for a three-year, $3 million fund-raising effort for a new church. Green is also chairman of the men's ministry services, involved in Bible study and sings in the choir every second and third Sunday of the month.

He needs to get better on the piano, though, before playing for us, jokes the Rev. Hadley Edwards, church pastor. Eugene's an energetic and a positive person, and anything you ask him to do for the church or the community, he is able to do.