Roger Sherman Greene (1881–1947) was a diplomat, foundation official, medical administrator in China and a national leader in affairs relating to East Asia. He has two prominent siblings, Evarts Boutell Greene who is an American historian at Columbia, and Jerome Davis Greene who is a foundation administrator, banker, and secretary of the Corporation of Harvard University.
Early life
Roger Greene was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, while his parents were on furlough in the United States. He was the fourth son and sixth of eight children of Rev. Daniel Crosby Greene, a Congregational minister, and Mary Jane (Forbes) Greene. His parents, descendants of colonial Massachusetts families, had been among the earliest American missionaries in Japan, arriving in 1869 and serving until their deaths (the mother's in 1910, the father's in 1913). They were deeply involved in bringing modern Western education to the Japanese during the Meiji era.
He was the great-great-grandson of American founding father Roger Sherman.
Eventually, Greene became uncomfortable in his role as agent of the interests of the United States, feeling a broader obligation to mankind. He therefore surrendered a highly promising diplomatic career to accept an opportunity to join in the philanthropic activities of the Rockefeller Foundation, of which his brother Jerome was then secretary.
Rockefeller Foundation
Greene began as a member of the foundation's commission which surveyed the medical and public health needs of China. The commission's recommendations led to the establishment, later in 1914, of the China Medical Board, to foster medical education in China through the improvement of hospitals and medical schools and the granting of fellowships to missionary and Chinese physicians. Wallace Buttrick of the General Education Board accepted the directorship of the board, and Greene was made resident director in China. He remained in China until 1935, becoming director of the China Medical Board in 1921 and serving from 1927 to 1929 as vice-president of the Rockefeller Foundation in the Far East. He also took a particular interest in one of the board's projects, the Peking Union Medical College, and became acting director in 1927.