The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Bill Greene could paint, whittle, scuba dive and mold ceramics.

He could also blow, twist, coil and weave balloons into flowers and animals. That’s when his massive, almost head-sized hands were at their best, according to friends.

Greene, who died of liver cancer at 68 on June 20, was known as “Tug Boat” around the halls of the Shriners Children’s Hospital in Portland, where in full clown garb he twisted balloons into flowers and coaxed laughs out of seriously ill patients.

“He loved the kids when he was clowning and doing his Shriners work,” said Greene’s live-in girlfriend, Maxine Sullivan. “He loved blowing balloons for the kids.”

Greene struggled with a chronic lung disease. He died of liver cancer, but not before living a full life, his friends said. Throughout his battle with the illness that overtook him, his smile endured.

Greene was said to love football.

He was a member of the board that launched the Shriners Freedom Bowl Classic. The eighth annual edition of the all-star high school football game will be played tonight at Kiggins Bowl.

All proceeds from the event go to Shriners, the organization Greene worked closely with over the past 10 years. “The Shriners burn unit was his favorite charity,” said Jim Cobb, a fellow Shriner clown.

In recent years, Greene worked the gates at Clark County Youth Football games, taking tickets and needling customers.

John Bryant, who served on the board with Greene, said the big man atop the electric scooter with the full beard made standing in line enjoyable.

“He manned the gate all day long,” Bryant said. “People didn’t like standing in line (so) he would banter with them.”

“He loved the people, and he loved teasing them,” Sullivan said. “He always had a little twinkle in his eyes and kind of a half-grin.”

When Sullivan talks about Greene, she doesn’t talk about how much she loved him (she did), but of how much he loved to love.

She said, too, that she was proud of him. Greene was an Eagle Scout, Vietnam veteran and member of North Bank Lodge No. 182.

He visited the children at Shriners once a month and more often when he was asked. He would sidle into the room on his electric scooter and kids would beam, fellow clowns and Masons said.

The Shriners are rooted in Masonic lodges, including the one in Washougal where Greene was a member.

His clown character, “Tug Boat,” wore a blue shirt, Navy hat, yellow hair and painted his beard yellow.

His big hands made twisting balloons his specialty, Sullivan said.

The two lived together for 10 years. They’d been close 35 years ago, she said, reuniting after their spouses died.

He never had kids, she said, but cared deeply about her grown children, George, Randy and Ted. “He kind of took over mine,” she said.

He is survived by his mother, Anne Greene, and brother, Jerry Greene.

Cobb said Bill Greene used to participate in parades on his scooter, sometimes sitting in the front seat of the truck during routes through Battle Ground, Camas and the Hazel Dell area.

“He would sit up there and wave and wave,” said Cobb. “Once in awhile you come across special friends. That was Bill.”

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