Standing-room-only crowd honors late Fremd choral director

A beloved choral director at Fremd High School in Palatine drew a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 600 people Saturday to celebrate his life with pictures, stories and music.

Robert Green passed away Dec. 12 from brain cancer at the age of 36. He had taught all four levels of choir at the school since 1998, drawing record numbers of students to join, his colleagues said. But this semester, he was only able to be there for a few weeks.

"Through it all, after everything that he went through, his number one goal was to come back to teach at Fremd High School," said his father, Paul Green, the WGN radio political commentator and director of Roosevelt University's School of Policy Studies.

Green and his wife, Sharon, greeted guests as they poured into the school auditorium. They stood before enlarged photos of their son, most often taken with his cherished Italian greyhound, Bella.

They presented well wishers with gray wristbands that symbolize brain tumor awareness and are imprinted with the words "Live in harmony: RHG."

The two-hour celebration interspersed reflections by family and friends with singing performances by Fremd's highest choral group, its chamber ensemble. They opened with the Quaker hymn, "How Can I Keep From Singing."

Family members pointed out that each of the five choral selections were directed by Robert Green's former students, all professional choral directors and music educators working across the country.

Some of his current choral students reflected on the positive encouragement he always used in class and his preference for having them sing classical literature and often pieces in other languages before they moved to popular pieces at the end of the year.

"We sang songs in Latin, French, Italian, German, African and even Russian," said junior Gwen Lavigne of Hoffman Estates. "My freshman year, I think we only sang three songs the whole year in English."

Other students remembered his sense of fun, and how he saved Friday classes for special bonding games he had created for students.

"He really wanted us to be like a family," sophomore Jessi Jorgensen of Inverness said.

The memorial service ended the way each of his concerts had, with the song, "The Awakening," by Joseph Martin. This time, all of the alumni in the audience that had sung under Green's direction, gathered on stage for one last emotional rendition.