Robert Joseph Green III, an information technology manager and a co-winner of a Baltimore Sun holiday cookie contest, died Dec. 19 of multiple myeloma at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Bel Air resident was 63.
Born in Port Chester, N.Y., he was the son of Robert J. Green Jr., an engineer, and Valerie Stuart Green, a homemaker. The family resided in Connecticut before moving to Maryland in 1957.
He attended Mount Washington Country School and Immaculate Conception School before graduating from Towson Catholic High School in 1969.
He began working in information services at the old Alex. Brown & Sons investment firm at its Towson office. He later became a manager in the same field at the Noxell Corp. and Martin-Marietta, later Lockheed Martin.
He also worked briefly for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland and Provident Mutual Insurance Co. In 2007, he joined the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he was employed until his death.
In 2008 Mr. Green was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.
"He battled back to create what he called his new normal," said his wife, the former Deborah Daue. "It was a tough comeback."
Family members credited his determination — and the help of doctors, therapists, nurses, family and friends — for his recovery. He spent four months in the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center intensive care unit and underwent more than a dozen surgeries. He also was treated at Union Memorial Hospital. He then spent two months in rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He lost all his fingers and his kneecaps.
"He triumphantly left his wheelchair behind and achieved his goal of dancing with me again," his wife said. "We did it and danced. My husband was a beautiful singer, and he just loved the music of Frank Sinatra."
He also resumed another tradition. He joined a former neighbor from Baltimore County's Anneslie neighborhood in baking holiday cookies.
In 2011 he entered the Baltimore Sun Holiday Cookie Contest with that neighbor, Otts Smith, using a recipe for molasses lace cookies from Smith's mother. The two men said the thin, lacy cookies were their favorites — and they vowed to resume their production after other family members complained they were too difficult to make.
"The men decided they would take over the task and make a day out of it. In 1979, the 'Annual Molasses Cookie Baking Day' got its start. The yearly ritual continued even after the Greens left the neighborhood, said a 2011 article in The Sun.
After recovering, Mr. Green and Mr. Smith decided it was time to resume molasses cooking making.
"On a recent Saturday … the two men maneuvered around each other easily in the Smiths' compact kitchen, dividing the baking tasks," The Sun's story said. "Otts scooped the dough onto the cookie sheets and put them in the oven, and Bob, donning his prosthetic hand and wielding the metal spatula, took on the tricky task of scraping the finished cookies off the pan."
The cookies won the contest.
Family members said that early in his recovery, Mr. Green began testing an innovative myoelectric prosthetic hand developed by Touch Bionics. He demonstrated the hand while traveling throughout the country and Canada to tell of his own resilience and recovery.
"Bob took pride in what he had accomplished and was grateful for the help that he received and was always compelled to share his experiences," said his wife, an administrator at the Maryland Behavioral Health Administration.
In recent years, he was appointed to the Harford County Disabilities Commission and was a member of the Upper Chesapeake Hospital Amputee Support Group.
He was a member of the Towson Elks. He also vacationed in Ocean Isle, N.C., with family and friends. He had been a Boy Scout Troop leader in Towson and Bel Air. He also coached Bel Air Recreation League soccer. He played golf at local courses.
A memorial service will be held 3 p.m. Saturday at the Schimunek Funeral Home, 610 W. MacPhail Road in Bel Air.
In addition to his wife of 41 years, survivors include a son, Robert Joseph Green IV of Elkton; two daughters, Jessica Jeannetta of Belcamp and Caroline Green of Philadelphia; a brother, Michael Green of Dayton, Ohio; two sisters, Valerie Spangler of Timonium and Kathi Tucker of Lutherville; and a granddaughter.