On This Day: Cecil Green Was Born

08.06.2018

The MV Cecil Green at sea.

On Aug. 6, 1900, future UT Dallas co-founder Cecil H. Green was born in Manchester, England.

Green led an eventful life: He and his mother survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; he helped co-found Texas Instruments (and UTD) with Eugene McDermott and J. Erik Jonsson; and he was made an Honorary Knight of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II of England in recognition of a lifetime of philanthropy.

He also had two ships named after him.

The first (pictured below) vessel was christened on July 11, 1965, in Houston. It was designed and equipped for seismic exploration at sea. The MV Cecil Green II followed it in 1982. (Green joined Geophysical Services Incorporated — which would become Texas Instruments — in 1930, starting as party chief of a seismic reflection crew in Maud Oklahoma.)

Ida Green christens the MV Cecil Green as her husband Cecil watches on (far left).