Nick Green, KCATA manager who ensured ‘everything went right on the street,’ dies at 92

Editor’s note: This feature is part of a new weekly focus from The Star meant to highlight and remember the lives of Black Kansas Citians who have died.

Every workday at 3:45 a.m., Nachola “Nick” Green would sit with his clipboard near the back gate of the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority’s main public bus terminal, jotting down notes as the fleet of more than 200 city buses rolled off the lot.

Green, among the first Black KCATA workers to reach the top ranks of management, sat there each morning to ensure drivers hit the pavement promptly, keeping a tight schedule. It was a responsibility he took seriously, family and former co-workers said. On his mind always were those in the city who relied on public transit to get to where they needed to be.

Green died Jan. 19 in the Autumn Terrace Health and Rehabilitation nursing home of Raytown, Missouri, after a physical injury led to major declines in his health, placing him in hospice care. He was 92.

He stayed sharp, his shirt and tie always the neatest, always looking to set an example for his subordinates. His outgoing and caring personality made him fast friends with many of the people he worked with. They remembered him as strict, but fair.

“His job was to make sure that everything went right on the street with the buses. That’s the best way I can explain it to you,” said Tommie Hill, 68, a former co-worker who remained close with Green over the last 35 years. Hill eventually took over Green’s job after he retired.

“He had a dynamic work ethic,” Hill said. “That’ll be my best memory of him, because he helped me develop my work ethic. Always on time, always neat, always clean and always respectful to the public.”

A man who considered himself a “country boy” at heart, despite spending most of his life in the big city, Green was born in 1928 in Ardmore, Oklahoma, a small town halfway between Dallas and Oklahoma City. He spent a portion of his childhood in Kansas City, attending Penn Elementary School, before returning to Oklahoma for high school. He later attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and went on to study mortuary science in Kansas City.

Green wore many hats over the course of his professional life — literally and figuratively.

In 1953, he was drafted into the U.S. Army from the Missouri National Guard near the end of the Korean War, and spent 14 months overseas. After he returned home to his wife Percis “Peggy” Green, whom he married in 1950 and shared more than 50 years with, Green worked as a mail carrier, railroad mail clerk, and funeral director.

In his early 40s Green changed gears again to begin his career with KCATA driving buses. His routes would take him on a new adventure across Kansas City every day.

At that time, only nine years had passed since the transportation authority hired its first five Black drivers — a milestone reached four years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.

After 1975, Green started rising through the ranks as a division dispatcher, clerk, schedule maker and charter instructor. In 1981, he was promoted to oversee the transportation authority’s road supervisors, a job he held until he retired in 1996.

Green ran a tight ship. Things were done by the book — workers kept their uniforms tidy, buses couldn’t be not even a few minutes behind, or a minute ahead. That was a good way to land a driver in hot water. Green would often take the work to the streets, working traffic accidents and helping to diffuse situations when passengers got unruly.

He expected those under his direction to give their best each and every day.

“He took pride in it and he enjoyed it,” Sharon Green, his only daughter, said. “He liked the people, and everybody liked him.”

At home, he kept the nicest lawn on the block, built additions to his property over the years, and tended a garden with tomatoes, greens, lettuce, peppers, and pretty much anything else he could stick in the ground and grow.

Even in retirement, Green could not stay off the road. To keep himself busy, he got a job with a local luxury car service, sometimes carting executives and pro-athletes around town in a limousine.

“I would see him occasionally (driving the limousine) when I was downtown working,” said David Williams, another former co-worker of Green’s from KCATA. “He would ask me how I was doing. He was always wanting to know how you were, and if everything was OK in your personal life and your work life. That was the kind of guy he was.”

Ever the people person, he had frequent breakfasts at Denny’s with a rotating group of about two dozen other public transit retirees, who’d get together and swap stories on a monthly basis. And he loved himself some bid whist.

Green remained an early riser even after he stopped working. His only granddaughter, Kendra Green, recalled among her favorite memories as a child those early mornings when her grandfather would get up before the sun, pack up the RV and take her down to their favorite fishing spots in Wyandotte County.

They grew even closer after Green’s wife passed away in 2005. Quick-witted, eager to help and always willing to lend his ear, Kendra Green came to rely on her grandfather’s advice almost every day. Even when he could not fully relate to the directions she decided to take in life, he always offered his support.

“That’s what I enjoyed the most about our relationship,” Kendra Green said. “... Whether he agreed with me or not, I never felt discouraged.”

Nick Green is survived by his daughter, Sharon Green, and his granddaughter, Kendra Green.

Other remembrances

Charles Edward Harrison

Charles Edward Harrison, remembered as a devoted family man and a longtime electrician who never met a socket he couldn’t fix, died Jan. 31. He was 74.

Harrison grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, where he was enlisted between 1967 and 1973. For his service, he was awarded a Purple Heart after being severely injured in combat, and he spent several months in the hospital learning to walk again once he returned home.

In his professional life, Harrison spent more than 30 years working as a union election – and over the years he frequently pointed out the buildings across Kansas City that featured his handiwork. He later founded Harrison Construction, where he continued to specialize in electrical work.

Harrison shared 41 years of marriage with his wife, Elizabeth Harrison, who preceded him in death.

Harrison is survived by his three daughters, two sons, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Anna Stillman

Anna Stillman, an evangelist, Sunday School teacher, food service manager and charity booster, died Jan. 30. She was 81.

Born Anna Askew in 1939 in Kansas City, Kansas, Stillman was the eighth of nine children. She received her early education in KCK before moving to Bonner Springs, Kansas, where she attended Bonner Springs High School.

She met her husband, John Edward Stillman, the year she graduated, 1957. She spent many of the following years working closely with the church as a secretary, missionary and educator. She also worked as a supervisor in food service providing meals for the children of Kansas City, Kansas public schools.

Stillman also assisted with collecting yearly donations benefiting several charity causes, including cancer research, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and muscular dystrophy. Family and friends fondly remembered her as “Mama Stillman.”

Stillman was preceded in death by her husband and one grandson. She is survived by three daughters, 10 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson.

Rochelle Chandler

Rochelle Chandler, a longtime educator remembered for inspiring her young students to reach their full potential, died Jan. 28. She was 70.

Chandler was born in December of 1950 in Kansas City, Kansas, attending area public schools and graduating from Sumner High School in 1968. At just 16 years old, she began working toward her career in education as a nursery school understudy, a path she followed for more than 50 years. She married her husband, Marvin Chandler, in 1973. He preceded her in death.

Chandler taught pre-school, where she shared her joy of learning and singing, finding something special in each student who walked into her classroom. Her lessons often took the children under her care out to the local parks, where she’d teach them history and instill a sense of pride in their community.

Chandler is survived by two daughters, a son, 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.