John Green (1946-2022) was born in Alabama and spent his childhood through young adulthood in Oklahoma, where he met and married Freddie. His service in Vietnam was followed by life as a potter, photographer, artist, and guitar teacher in Oregon and Alaska. He discovered Persian Sufism in Portland in the mid-1970s, and as he told it, his frustration with an inability to read the source texts and poetry linked to this philosophy in the original language led to a decision to pursue the study of Persian at Portland State University. A fellowship at the University of Michigan's Department of Near Eastern Studies led to a Ph.D. (1987) and years of research in Persian literature. John was fluent in Persian and Arabic and spent decades as a translator. His translations of Weststruckness and Lost in the Crowd introduced Jalal Al-e Ahmad outside Iran at a time when the author's writings were thought to have played a prominent role in the Islamic Revolution of 1979. John's translation of short stories by Iranian woman writers (A Walnut Sapling on Masih's Grave) was also the first book of its kind. John Green was a lifelong collector of music, books, and paper, and he spent thirty years as a vintage film poster dealer. A self-taught computer programmer, he built the very first film poster website on the internet in the early days of the World Wide Web. His passion and expertise were in Arabic and Egyptian film posters, and he created the largest collection of these in the world through decades of travel to Egypt. His research and writings on Egyptian films were a resource for many on the internet. A true renaissance man, John was a writer, a professional photographer, a skilled potter, a rare book dealer, an artist, and foremost, always a musician with a passion for guitar. He is survived by his former spouse, Freddie, and his sister, Janice. He is missed by friends who were forever changed by his beautiful teachings, words, and writing.
