Beloved Anchorage instructor passes away

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Nathan Green, a longtime social studies and guitar teacher at Benny Benson High School, passed away Aug. 10 from stage four kidney cancer.

Family members described Green as a beloved husband, father, and teacher — a man that just went out of his way for his family and his students.

“He fought cancer for nine years, and this year was a hard year,“ Green’s wife Regina Green said. “But he’s like I gotta be at school. The kids need me.”

Green said her husband was a man with a quiet voice but a loud personality, and now an even louder legacy.

“Helping kids to do their best, and you know, he did things for kids he didn’t have to do, going out of his way, " Regina Green said. “They were able to tell that he cared deeply for them.”

The Benny Benson teacher was not only loved by his family, but by his students, Regina said. Students impacted by Green made sure his family knew how much he meant to them by sending letters to his family with not only their condolences but with “thank you’s” to Mr. Green.

“He could always recognize that I needed something, and he was always there to provide that support,” Regina Green read.

Green’s impact on his class didn’t stop with support, she said. Green invested passion, adventure, and fun into the lives of his students and his family.

“He would get up in front of the class and just say and goof around with the students, and they always just really enjoyed that about him,” Regina Green said.

According to Green’s daughter, he never let his cancer get the best of him. His family says that his strength, not only mentally but physically and emotionally, helped him make it as far as he did with his cancer.

“I was just thinking about this. I was trying to figure this out today. What one story one event, one thing I’ve been wanting to share or that particularly stood out,” said Paisley Green, Nathan Green’s daughter. “But that was the thing about him; there were so many things that he did and wanted us to do together.”

Green leaves behind more than just a family and a class full of students, he also leaves behind a legacy of passion, love, and memories that will last a lifetime.

Correction: An original version of this story incorrectly spelled the last name of Nathan Green.

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