News

Daniel Paul “Doc” Greenlee, MD
1902–2005

Dr. D. Paul Greenlee, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Class of 1924, believed to be the oldest Pitt Med alum, died peacefully at home on March 6, 2005. He and his wife, Audrey, were to celebrate their 68th wedding anniversary in just two weeks and in three weeks he would have observed his 103rd birthday. He was a prominent physician in Greene County, Pennsylvania, for the last half of the 20th century, and had conducted an active practice of medicine until 1982 when he retired at the age of 80.

The son of Reverend Samuel Greenlee, a Methodist minister, and Harriet Wood Greenlee, he was born in Hillsboro, Oregon, on March 28, 1902. The family returned to the Pittsburgh area in 1904. In 1917, the family moved to Wilkinsburg where he graduated from high school and entered the University of Pittsburgh that year. He attended the University’s medical school and graduated from there in 1924 followed by an internship at Pittsburgh’s St. Francis Hospital from 1924–25.

He next entered a four year residency fellowship in general surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He began his medical practice upon his return to Pittsburgh and eventually opened his office in Oakland. In the 1930s he was the physician for Jock Sutherland’s Pitt Panthers football team.

In the spring of 1936, he met a young lab technician who worked in another professional office in Oakland’s Medical Arts Building, and they began a romance that would last a lifetime. He proposed marriage to Audrey Huchel on Christmas Day of 1936 and they were married in Pittsburgh on March 20, 1937. His much-loved wife was at his side when he passed away.

He became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1932 and a Diplomat of the Board of General Surgery in 1941.

Dr. Greenlee served in the U.S. Army in World War II at bases in Denver, Vancouver, Washington, and Columbia, South Carolina, before being sent to the South Pacific. He was the chief of general surgery of the 309th General Hospital on the island of Tinian when the B-29 bomber The Enola Gay took off from the tiny atoll to drop the atomic bomb which brought about the end of the war. After V-J Day, Dr. Greenlee served as chief of surgery at the Army Hospital in Tokyo before returning to Pittsburgh upon his discharge from the Army.

After two years of medical practice in Pittsburgh, Dr. Greenlee moved his family to Waynesburg in Greene County where he opened his new practice and joined the staff of the Greene County Memorial Hospital. He had relatives in Greene County on both his mother’s and father’s side of the family. He quickly became popularly known throughout the area as “Doc” Greenlee, since he was one of the last doctors who made house calls and visited and treated patients from every community in the county.

“Doc” Greenlee loved the practice of medicine but dreaded the “business” of medicine. He treated the less well-off with a concern equal to that he gave to the more fortunate. He was famous for refusing compensation for his services when times were tough, but reluctantly accepted a chicken or vegetables from grateful families.

He was active in his Methodist Church in Waynesburg and rarely missed a Bible class or Sunday service. He was supportive of Waynesburg College, his mother’s and father’s alma mater. He was a strong supporter of the Greene County 4-H program and was known for his annual purchase of prize livestock at the Greene County Fair.

Had “Doc” Greenlee been anything but a doctor, he would have been a farmer. He loved to retreat to his farm acreage in Greene County to feed and tend to the cattle. He won environmental awards for the stewardship of his farms. He was also an avid sports fan.

He was surrounded by his family at the time of his passing. He is survived by his loving wife, Audrey; his son William and his wife Barbara (Camp Hill); son Thomas and his wife Martha (Baskerville, Virginia); daughter Janet and husband Kay Rohanna (Marianna); daughter Elizabeth “Betsy” (Waynesburg); daughter Nancy Ann “Pinky” and husband Lonn Jackson (Dayton, Ohio); daughter Mary Jane “Tuner” and husband John Markle (Huntsville, Utah); daughter Paula Kay (West Bath, Maine); son John and wife Natalie (Waynesburg); daughter Marte and husband Dennis Dobosh (Scotia, New York); and two foster children: Wilson Voelker of Fort Worth, Texas, and Margie Staggers Howard of Waynesburg. There are 21 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

The family would like to express its most sincere thanks to his compassionate caregivers Patty Rose, Joy Kerr, Fern Weaver, June Gilbert and Dorothy Orndoff.

His wife and children are especially grateful for the extraordinary and kind attention of his good friend Dr. Jer-Yuan Tsai of Waynesburg.

There was a memorial service for Dr. Greenlee on March 12, 2005 at the First United Methodist Church in Waynesburg.