Bob Greene is a journalist, Maine historian, AP tennis writer, author, and local music enthusiast. He is at least an 8th generation Mainer, his five time great-grandparents were married in New Gloucester in 1783. His passions include tennis and Maine history. He continues to cover tennis for World Tennis Magazine- more on tennis later. He wrote a book about his family history Maine Roots V: The Manuel, Mathews, Ruby Family.  The a distant cousin of William Ruby the man who brought attention to the Great Fire of 1866 and son of the founder of the Abyssinian Meeting House, Portland’s first Black congregation. He was an advisor and contributor for Maine’s Visible Black History (H.H. Price and Gerald Talbot). Bob teaches Maine history through the Oscher lifelong Learning Institute at USM. He is a contributor to WJZP 107.9 and posts a weekly list of local music performances.

In 1969, while covering sports for the Associated Press in Milwaukee, Bob was asked to write about a tennis tournament in town.  He later realized he had witnessed the Handsome Eight and the beginning of pro tennis.  In 1980, he was named the Associated Press tennis writer, and covered all the major events, including the French Open and Wimbledon.  He’s covered over 30 U.S. Opens and met many of the greatest players: Don Budge, Fred Perry, Jack Kramer, Arthur Ashe (who attended the same church in New York as Bob), John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Marina Navratilova, and Chris Evert.

Bob attended Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral as a member of the press. Yet when asked in a profile by Maine Magazine, he said the the person who changed his life was Harry Truman. “I was living in Kansas City at the time, writing for the Kansas City Call, which is a black weekly newspaper. Sammy Davis Jr. came to town and he was supposed to go visit the president at the Harry S. Truman Library, so I went out to cover it. When I got there, the president’s secretary informed me that Sammy Davis Jr. was ill that morning and couldn’t make it. So, since I’d made the trip with the photographer, I asked if we could see the president and she said, “Of course.” I went in and talked to him for about 45 minutes and, on the way back to my office, it dawned on me: here was a former president of the United States, and he could have said the most important things in the world during our conversation, and no one would know it if I didn’t write about it. It gave me a whole different outlook on my profession.”