Virgil Lawson Greene, longtime Hermiston resident, was born on September 25, 1925, in Cambridge, Idaho. He died on March 28, 2015, in Hermiston, Oregon, at the age of 89 years.

Virgil was raised and attended school in Weiser, Idaho. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1943. Virgil served in the European Theater for 15 months during WWII and was honorably discharged in 1946 and returned to Weiser, Idaho.

Virgil was united in marriage to Joan Townley on December 27, 1950, in Winnemucca, Nevada. They lived in Weiser, Idaho, where Virgil worked on the railroad and during the summer fire season as a smoke jumper in McCall, Idaho, from 1948 through 1950. In 1954 they moved to Ordnance and Virgil went to work at the Umatilla Army Depot. He worked as an ammunition inspector for 28 years before retiring in 1982.