Michael Green July 2, 1945 – March 9, 2025

With great sorrow, the family of Michael Edward Green announced that he passed away from a sudden heart attack on March 9 at the age of 79. A longtime resident of Portola Valley and Woodside, CA, Mike was born in Buffalo, New York, to Ellanor Backus Green and Alvin Green. He grew up in the suburb of Williamsville.

His summers were spent at the family cottage at Long Point on Lake Erie, boating and fishing with his brother Tom and with relatives and friends including David Coe and cousins Sandy and Debbie Bain.

Mike graduated from Williamsville High School in 1963, attended Denison University for his freshman year, and then transferred to the State University of New York at Buffalo, from which he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business degree in 1967. While at SUNY-Buffalo he met his wife Joan and they married in 1968. They recently celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary. Mike also earned a Master’s degree in computer science from the University of Rochester.

Mike’s first job was with Lincoln Rochester Trust Co. He went on to work as a marketing executive for Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Co. LCP had a subsidiary in San Francisco and, after numerous business trips to the city, Mike fell in love with the Bay Area and re-located to the West Coast in 1973. He and Joan lived for 20 years in Woodside, in the Santa Cruz Mountains foothills amid redwood trees, wildlife, and views of the Bay. In 1999, they moved to nearby Portola Valley Ranch.

Mike’s first job in the Bay Area was with Judson Branch Research Center (later Allstate Research Center) in Menlo Park, but in 1982 he launched his own survey and analytics company, Direct Marketing Research Associates. That same year he and Joan welcomed their beloved daughter Pamela into the world.

DMRA’s client list rapidly grew to include insurance, financial services, and consumer product companies. Services included new product development, customer profiles, focus groups, and advertising effectiveness studies. A pioneer in data analytics for targeted direct marketing, Mike developed Matchkey – a proprietary software package used in segmentation research using large databases. The highly successful package evolved over the years into a regression and segmentation modeling software solution called QeS.

Clients over the years included Allstate Insurance, Allstate Motor Club, Sears, Combined Insurance, Colonial Penn, Pfizer, First Republic Bank, JC Penney, and Time-Life Books. Active in the Direct Marketing Association, he was asked to speak on market research and database marketing at conferences in the U.S. and abroad.

Mike always took an interest in his community. As a resident of Woodside, he served on the Woodside Planning Commission for several years. After moving to Portola Valley Ranch, he served on its Board of Directors, headed its Infrastructure Committee, and was an active and enthusiastic member of its Wine Committee. He and the family also owned a vineyard in Napa that produced excellent Grand Duke Winery cabernet sauvignon.

He loved to travel with Joan and Pam, especially to Yosemite and Yellowstone and to countries throughout Europe. Several safari trips to South Africa were highlights and allowed him to put his love of photography to good use. Most enjoyable, though, were trips to visit family members on the East Coast. During Pam’s childhood the family also spent many weekends at their vacation home at Pajaro Dunes on Monterey Bay.

Five years ago, Pam gave birth to her son Eugene Michael. Being a grandfather and playing with Eugene at home, at the beach, at county fairs, and Disneyland brought Mike the greatest happiness. Eugene loved his “Grandpa Bo,” who shared with him his love of outer space, geology, trains, cars, and tools.

Pam was Mike’s pride-and-joy, and she remembers her Dad as “the smartest person” she ever met: hard-working and inquisitive, but also fun and humorous and a teller of great stories, especially about happy moments in his childhood. She credits him with instilling in her a strong work ethic and belief she could do anything she set her mind to.

Mike is survived by his wife, daughter, and grandson. As well as his brother Tom Green and sister-in-law Elaine, their daughter-in-law Heidi, and their grandchildren Brooke and nephew Blaine. He also will be greatly missed by his brother-in-law Ken Roberts and brother-in-law Gene Roberts, his wife Lori, and nephews Eric and Mark.

In lieu of flowers, Mike would have liked donations to be made to Sempervirens Fund, which since 1900 has worked to protect and preserve the redwood forests, wildlife habitat, and scenic features of California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, where the family lived for two decades.

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