Hal Greenwood seated in his basement office that is filled with books and mementos of his life. At age 86, Hal is slowing down just a little, and he is giving up his duties in the Cook County School District 166 Education Foundation, an organization he started 20 years ago. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
Hal Greenwood, a founding member of the Cook County Education Foundation, is stepping away. Whoever takes his spot as president of the Foundation will have big shoes to fill.
In operation since 1999, more than $250,000 in grants have been awarded to classroom teachers and administration at I.S.D. 166. “Our Education Foundation was formed to help fund activities that the school board was unable to,” said Greenwood.
Those include grants to purchase culinary art supplies, tower gardens for the 1st grade, Knowledge Bowl teams’ competitions fees, middle school exploratory days, computers, North House timber frame project, math missions for grades 4 and 5, and many more projects.
When asked why he had spent so much time, money and effort to raise funds for a school district where none of his own children attended, Hal Greenwood smiled and recounted days of his youth.
In 1938 Hal was a second-grader at Riley School in Minneapolis. As a left-hander, the school district was trying to make him and six other left-handed students learn to write with their right hands.
Tough sledding in a poor elementary school led Hal Greenwood to care passionately about education for the rest of his life. Staff photo/ Brian Larsen
“I protested,” said Hal, which led to his knuckles being bloodied by a teacher’s ruler. After coming home with those injured knuckles, Hal’s mother called the school to find out why he had been punished.
“When my parents found out they backed me up,” said Hal, noting the story was carried in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
If the teachers weren’t kid-friendly, the school building itself was a wreck.
“It was during the Depression, and all of the young teachers had been let go to save money, and retired teachers were brought in. They were mean. The building was old. It was from Fort Snelling. I think it was Civil War barracks. We had pot-bellied wood heaters in the halls. When it got too cold, the teachers sent us home. It wasn’t a good place for a kid to go to school.”
Those tough early school years are memories Greenwood can’t forget. He wants kids today to have far better memories of school then he was left with.
“When we started the Education Foundation, the Minnesota Twins came to help us out. At our first meeting, the Twins donated $25,000 to assist with the creation of a baseball field behind the school. Another significant donation came when my wife, Carol, passed away; nearly $5,000 was donated to the Education Foundation in her memory.”
Many people have helped with the Education Foundation, but Greenwood mentioned several who have made especially firm commitments. “Jana Larson was a big help to me. Kaye Tavernier, Loreli Livingston, Anne Sullivan, and Doug Sanders, they have all contributed greatly to the Foundation.”
Hal has also been a reading mentor to “provide youth with the encouragement to overcome reading difficulties.”
When Hal spoke of the Minnesota Twins, he displayed memorabilia of Twins’ great Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, Bert Blyleven and more. His house, in fact, is filled with pictures of Hal and his wife Carol meeting Presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and trips around the world to exotic locations. His house, in fact, is filled with memories and mementos of a vibrant, interesting life, one that started in a rickety school.
“I have been a champion of the schools, helping win several referendums, but it’s time I let someone else take my place. I will still serve on the EDA board, the Cook County revolving loan committee, but this will be my last EATS (Enriching Academics Through Sustenance) fundraiser. It’s Thursday, March 14 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Cook County school.”
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