Edgeworth native Josh Green reflects on his roots while running for Hawaiian office

When Josh Green is not leading Hawaii’s covid relief efforts, being a doctor in emergency rooms or addressing constituents’ concerns in the Aloha State, he ponders the future of his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.

“I can live with (Mitch) Trubisky and an offensive lineman in the first round or second (in the draft),” Green said while in between activities March 15. “I’m living in Hawaii and may become the next governor, but my blood is black and gold to a degree.”

Green, a Sewickley native and 1988 Quaker Valley graduate, was elected lieutenant governor in November 2018 and is the Democratic front-runner in this year’s gubernatorial race. His office is decked out in Steelers memorabilia, including a Franco Harris autographed Terrible Towel.

The former fighting Quaker commended retired quarterback and likely Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger for all he’s done for the team.

“Three Super Bowls, two wins, 18 years, that works,” Green said. “I’m very close to the Rooney family and I come back for one game a year. If you have a legend, you can’t force him out. You’ve got to let them make their own mind up.

“I’d take what we did over what the (San Francisco) 49ers did with (Joe) Montana where he went off to Kansas City, or the (New England) Patriots sending (Tom) Brady off to Tampa Bay. I’d rather respect our guy who got us the titles.”

Green, 52, was born in Upstate New York to John and Natasha Green. They moved to Edgeworth shortly after Josh turned 1.

His family already had longstanding roots in the Sewickley area.

His grandfather, the late Sam Green, moved to Ambridge in 1920 and ran Green Engineering Co. in the heart of Sewickley, which grew to become Green International, an international consulting and engineering company with operations and projects on four continents.

Natasha Green was named the Sewickley Herald Woman of the Year in 1984 for her humanitarian work.

“It was an incredible upbringing,” Josh Green said. “Just real gentle Edgeworth/Sewickley life. … I feel lucky. I got a lot of nice breaks along the way.”

He comes back to the borough about twice a year and usually returns home to Hawaii with some pierogies and Mancini’s bread.

Green was a tennis standout and team captain at Quaker Valley. He also played on the soccer team and was one of four valedictorians his senior year. He credits his leadership skills and fortitude to former history teacher and soccer coach Gene Klein. They still keep in touch.

“Coach Klein taught me to pursue excellence and instilled an incredible amount of drive in me,” Green said. “We remain friends for a lifetime. He’s probably more proud of me becoming lieutenant governor, and possibly governor than my soccer performance.”

Klein, 69, retired in 2015 after 33 years of teaching and 29 coaching seasons. He lives in Hudson, Ohio, with his wife, Anne.

Klein, who continues to battle brain cancer and had a tumor removed last February, said he is not surprised with Green’s success.

“He’s one of the hardest working and honest guys that I’ve ever known, and I think he’ll make a great governor of Hawaii,” Klein said. “As a soccer player, he cared only about the team.

“It was never about him as an individual. He worked hard for the team no matter what the situation was. … He knows I love him like a son. He’s always been a great kid.”

Green also recalled his former biology teacher, Ed Schroth, who would help guide his passion for science into a career of treating those in need.

Green attended Swarthmore College and majored in biology and anthropology.

He went on to medical school at Penn State University, where he graduated in three years.

He spent a year in Swaziland, Africa, working in missionary hospitals where he saw people with malaria and untreated AIDS.

“I wanted to pick a discipline where I could give back,” Green said. “My family did a lot of charitable work and humanitarian work over the years, and I wanted to continue that. My mom’s Russian Orthodox (and) my dad’s Jewish. In a family with that kind of religious background, it’s not uncommon for them to encourage their firstborn to go to medicine or law or something like that. That’s kind of what happened.”

After returning to Pittsburgh for three years for his residency at UPMC Shadyside, Green joined the National Health Service Corps, which repays loans for students who commit to serving in underserved areas.

Green was assigned to Big Island, Hawaii, where there was no doctor for more than 1,000 square miles. He served for four years in the southernmost part of the island.

It was during that time when he saw people suffering from addiction, trauma and lack of access to care, that led him to seek public office.

Green was elected to two terms in Hawaii’s state House of Representatives, where he served from 2004 to 2008. He then served as a state senator from 2008 to 2018.

He was named “Hawaii Physician of the Year” in 2009 and “Hawaii Legislator of the Year” in 2013.

Green was also named the state’s covid liaison and led Hawaii’s pandemic response. He helped create a program in which people coming to the state needed to be tested before coming or get vaccinated.

Green said a majority of the Hawaii population has been vaccinated, which led to the state having some of the lowest covid infection and death rates in the country. In fact, the CDC in September reported Hawaii had the lowest infection and fatality rate since the start of the pandemic.

Green serves as an emergency room physician on the weekends. He plans to continue that practice on a volunteer basis should he win in the November election.

Green married Hawaiian native Jaime Kanani Ushiroda of Kaneohe in 2006. They are the proud parents of a daughter, Maia, 15, and a son, Sam, 11.

Democrat David Ige has been governor since 2014.