Necrology

John Walter Greenman '57

Apr. 16, 1936-Dec. 30, 2022

John Walter Greenman ’57, GP’24 died at home in Guilford, Conn., on Dec. 30, 2022. Born in Binghamton, N.Y., on April 16, 1936, he grew up in Deposit, N.Y., and came to Hamilton from Deposit Central School. On the Hill, he majored in English literature and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Two extracurricular activities engaged him throughout his undergraduate education: the Newman Club and the Charlatans. As a freshman, he was also a member of the swim team.

From Hamilton and at the recommendation of a mentor in the English Department, John moved to New York City to work for the publishing company then known as Harper & Brothers. (As a result of mergers, it became Harper & Row in 1962 and HarperCollins in 1990.) His first assignment was as a publisher’s representative, specifically a “College Traveler.” He visited colleges and universities in his geographic territory, the Upper Midwest, to meet with faculty members and, ideally, sell them on new textbooks in their respective fields.

Around 1960, at a party hosted by a publisher, he met Barbara Gene Storms. After a three-year courtship, they were married on Oct. 19, 1963, in Pelham, N.Y. A resident of New Rochelle, she was an alumna of Mount Holyoke College and at the time of their marriage was an editor in the children’s book department of the World Publishing Co. They had a daughter and a son.

By the time of his marriage, John had been promoted to editor for economics and business administration in the company’s college division. As his career unfolded, he rose to senior editor by 1989 and later to executive editor, the position he held when he retired in 1997. John wasn’t very interested in the management of a publishing company; he preferred the nuts-and-bolts of editing and thus cultivated a comparatively small group of authors with whom he worked for a number of years. His reputation as a compassionate listener was due in part to his relationships with those individuals. It was clear that he was doing the sort of work he wanted to do, and he did it very well.

John had an agenda for his post-working life. He was a voracious reader of detective novels and a devotee of the theater, attending as many as four performances a week, something not entirely surprising given his undergraduate participation with the Charlatans. He sketched and did needlepoint, both creative processes carried out within frameworks, a setting he preferred. He also began writing crossword puzzles, many of which appeared in the weekday issues of The New York Times and in some Sunday editions. People Magazine also published them. He and Barbara lived close to Weill Cornell-Presbyterian Hospital, where John volunteered at the information desk.

For a number of years, the Greenmans had a second home in Guilford, Conn., on Long Island Sound. When the pandemic hit, they relocated there from New York City. John was then dealing with major health problems, and in the time of COVID, it was easiest to find people to assist with his care in Eastern Connecticut.

John W. Greenman is survived by his wife, two children, four grandchildren, including Peter D’Albert ’24, and his cousin John R. Normile, Jr. ’61. He was predeceased by his uncle John R. Normile, Sr. ’29, P’61.

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