Dean Franklin T. Green

Dean, 1909–1927

Franklin Theodore Green was born in 1863 in Nevada County, California. He entered the California College of Pharmacy in 1880; after graduating with distinction he was appointed to the faculty, becoming a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and holding a joint appointment in the University of California, Berkeley's Department of Chemistry. By 1901 he also held an appointment in the Department of Medicine of the Affiliated Colleges.

Appointed dean in 1909 of what was then called the California College of Pharmacy of the Affiliated Colleges of the University of California, in San Francisco, he served for 18 years. Prompted by new food and drug purity laws, Green oversaw a transition to more intensive training in pharmaceutical chemistry for pharmacists.

He served in a variety of public health positions, including as a toxicologist for the San Francisco Coroner’s office. He owned and operated Green’s Pharmacy at the corner of Divisadero and Fell Streets, served as president of the California Pharmaceutical Society, and was a member of many other societies. He had interests in geology, mineral chemistry, and watercolor sketching, and was friends with naturalist and author John Muir.

He retired from his deanship in 1927 due to ill health, but taught until 1935. He died in 1944, remembered as one of the most “scholarly and colorful figures” in the profession of pharmacy in San Francisco.

Source: “A History of UCSF,” UCSF Library.