Catherine Green, Sayville activist and PR specialist, dies at 71

Catherine Green was a self-described “cockeyed optimist,” according to her daughter, Liz Green. As an activist, Green, of Sayville, approached situations with kindness, even at tense protests and sit-ins.

A longtime public relations specialist, musician and a lifelong political activist, Green died July 3 of natural causes. She was 71.

One of nine siblings, Green was born Albert and Mary Synan on Dec. 27, 1951, and grew up in an Irish-Catholic household in Amityville. Her daughter said she still comes across Green’s poetry and other writings from back then.

“She was always very inclined toward literature and the arts from a very young age,” said Liz Green, a Brooklyn resident.

After graduating from Amityville High School in 1969, Catherine Green became involved in Long Island’s progressive activism scene.

She was part of the Long Island No Nukes Coalition, Sound/Hudson Against Atomic Development and Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign. She protested the Vietnam War and was arrested at the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant demonstrations. Because of those 1979 protests, the Long Island nuclear power plant never became operational. 

Green went on to graduate from Hofstra University and then Stony Brook University, where she received two master’s degrees, in English and literature. She also spent a semester at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

She met her future husband, John Green, through her sister, who was dating his brother at the time. John Green was having a party and her sister invited her to tag along.

“She was walking up to the house and a golden retriever puppy popped up in the window and was looking at her,” Liz Green said of her mother's first date with her father. “That was my dad's dog, Walker.”

The two got married in 1982 and briefly lived in Paris. Liz Green, the couple's only child, said her mother always encouraged her to be creative.

“For my birthday when I was a kid, she built — out of cardboard — a puppet theater,” Green said. “We would make puppets and do performances of ‘Where The Wild Things Are.’ ”

In 2001, the Green family moved to Sayville.

“She called it the land of summer,” Liz Green said of the her mother's description of the hamlet on the Great South Bay. “She said it all the time to the point where I would make fun of her.”

Catherine Green held many communications and public relations roles over the course of her career, including at Newsday, JPMorgan Chase and the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning.

For the Suffolk County Department of Social Services, she coached women on how to enter the workforce, helping them tailor resumes, prep for interviews and find child care. She also worked for Middle Earth, one of Long Island's first crisis intervention hotlines, and taught English as an adjunct faculty member at Suffolk County Community College.

At Long Island MacArthur Airport, she started various programs, including the Hometown Hero Welcome.

“It was based around welcoming veterans home who had been overseas,” Liz Green said. “She did everything from organizing Patriot Guard Riders to chauffeur them home and make sure they felt like they were returning to people who cared about their sacrifices.”

Catherine Green also took on several positions for Suffolk County Democratic politicians, including Legis. Kara Hahn of Setauket and former Islip Town Supervisor Phil Nolan.

A talented musician, Green started out as a folk singer before focusing on jazz later in life. She formed Cate & Co., a jazz ensemble.

"She was a light in so many people's lives,” said Hahn, who was best friends with Green.

Along with her daughter and husband, Green is survived by her daughter’s fiance, Gary Dillon, and six siblings. Memorial services were held at Raynor & D'Andrea Funeral Home in West Sayville.