Dallas Greene

Dallas W. Greene, Jr. (Fire Chief for Shreveport, Louisiana)
Born	June 29, 1923 Shreveport, Louisiana
Died	January 11, 2016  Shreveport, Louisiana
Occupation	Shreveport firefighter, 1942-1989
Spouse	Alice Whittington Greene (married 1947-2016, his death)
Religion	Christian Church

Dallas Wharton Greene, Jr. (June 29, 1923 – January 11, 2016), served from 1965 to 1989 as chief of the Fire Department in his native Shreveport, Louisiana. He joined the firefighting force in 1942, soon to leave temporarily for United States Army service in World War II. As chief, he was at the scene of every fire his department extinguished.

Chief Greene was not only one of the most beloved fire chiefs this city has had, but he was truly a great humanitarian. He gave his life to service and helping improve the fabric of Shreveport for the better. - Mayor Ollie Tyler.

Greene was a son of Dallas Greene, Sr. (1896-1970), and the former Eunice Lester (1897-1975). He graduated in 1941 from the former Fair Park High School in Shreveport and was employed by Arkansas Fuel Oil, at which he played fast pitch softball. Called to military service after joining the fire department, he rose from private to sergeant between boot camp and deployment to the European Theater of Operations. Upon his elevation to the chief's position, Greene worked to complete or to renovate at least fifteen buildings, including fire stations, a maintenance building, and the regional fire training academy. He built fire stations in outlying areas before the shopping centers arrived in later decade. "Those were considered the very extreme of the city limits, but he was a visionary and he knew one day the city would grow there — and it did," said Gene Barattini, a homeland security specialist in Bossier Parish and the author of Greene's biography entitled, Chief Dallas W. Greene, Architect of the Modern Shreveport Fire Department.

During the Cold War, Greene worked to establish emergency management and authorized large-scale disaster drills. Sandy Davis, a retired department official who was Greene's chauffeur in the former chief's last years, called his mentor "a man with a servant's heart who did things for our city not only as a fire chief, but as a citizen. ... I know it sounds cliché, but a man like him only comes around once in a lifetime."

Greene died in Shreveport at the age of eighty-eight and was survived by his widow, the former Alice Whittington (born July 24, 1923). Their daughter, Valerie Greene Rockett, predeceased him. His brother Bobby L. Greene (1926-2015) was a well-known Shreveport businessman who widely advertised his Bobby L. Greene Plumbing and Heating Co., Inc. The Greenes' father was also a plumber.

In 2004, at the recommendation of then Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran and Mayor Keith Hightower, State Representative Cedric Glover sponsored a bill to name the central fire station the Dallas W. Greene Jr. Central Fire Station. The station was opened and dedicated in June 2004.

Greene is interred at Centuries Memorial Park in Shreveport.

Current Shreveport Mayor Ollie Tyler called Greene "not only one of the most beloved fire chiefs this city has had, but he was truly a great humanitarian. He gave his life to service and helping improve the fabric of Shreveport for the better. He will truly be missed."