American Medical Biographies/Greene, Duff Warren
Greene, Duff Warren (1851–1913)
Duff Warren Greene, ophthalmologist of Dayton, Ohio, was born at Fairfield, Greene County, Ohio, May 17, 1851. The son of Dr. John W. Greene, a general practitioner of that place, he attended the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, for two or three years, but did not graduate. His medical degree was received at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, in 1876. For a time he practised general medicine at Fairfield in partnership with his father. Then pursuing the study of ophthalmology for several months in New York City, he removed from Fairfield to Dayton, where he practised as an ophthalmologist, until the very day, almost hour, of his death—more than thirty-one years.
In 1888 he studied ophthalmology in Vienna, for six months. In 1909 he went to Jalandhar, India, where he made a special study of the intracapsular method of cataract extraction as practised by Colonel Smith. In 1912 he proceeded, again to Europe, where he studied the eye in various hospitals in all the medical centres. In 1884 he was appointed oculist and aurist to the National Military Home, Ohio—a position which he held for twenty-nine years, until his death. He belonged to numerous medical societies, general and special, and in 1912 was made a member of the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress. For the last ten years of his life he was associated in practice with Dr. Horace Bonner. Dr. Greene was a voluminous and excellent contributor to ophthalmic literature. Aside from numerous journal articles, he wrote both valuable chapters on the intracapsular operation for cataract, in the second volume of C. A. Wood's System of Ophthalmic Operations, and in the American Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology.
Dr. Greene was a man of great enthusiasm and almost limitless capacity for work, nevertheless he was not what is termed "a slave to his profession." He went on long vacations in Summer, in the Northern portions of the United States and in Canada, hunting and fishing, and numerous trophies of his outdoor skill adorned his home. He was for a time, a member of the Ohio State Fish and Game Commission. He was a member of Mystic Lodge A. F. and A. M.; Unity Chapter, R. A. M.; the Reed Commandery of the Knights Templars and of the Antioch Temple of Shriners. He was long a member of the Grace M. E. Church and shortly before his death was elected a member of the official board.
In 1887 Dr. Greene married Miss Belle Norton, of Delaware, Ohio. Of the union were born two children, who died in infancy.
Dr. Greene died on August 16, 1913, having attended his office and performed an important surgical operation on the very day of his death, which was caused by heart disease.