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Who’s Who in Old Rockingham

The Exeter News Letter, August 19, 1938




Major Charles E. Greenman

Major Charles E. Greenman, head of the Charles E. Greenman Company, of Hampton, distributors of cut leather soles, is actively interested in nearly every undertaking intended for the betterment of Hampton and the seashore. He has been most active in the preparations for Hampton’s forthcoming tercentenary, a member of the general committee, and the parade committee. The publishing of the comprehensive feature pictorial magazine of the Hampton tercentenary was in his direct charge, and from the amount of the excellent material, pictures, and historical sketches it contains, it shows clearly the considerable thought and effort which went into its makeup.

Born in Haverhill, Mass., Mr. Greenman comes of a shoe manufacturing family. His father, likewise Charles E. Greenman, was long a sole manufacturer in Haverhill, and with the son and Harry M. Pethybridge as partners, moved the business to Hampton in 1919. Mr. Greenman’s mother, Addle May (Brown), of Haverhill, was a niece of the late Mrs. Stephen Henry Gale, and his great-grandfather, Thomas Harding, was a sole leather tanner in Haverhill.

Mr. Greenman was graduated from the Haverhill high school in 1910 and, after a year at the Bryant and Stratton Business School in Boston, went to work for his father.

During the World War, Mr. Greenman enlisted in the Coast Guard and was stationed at Rye Beach, and then at the Coast Guard district office at Portsmouth. Obtaining his discharge, he enlisted in the naval reserve, attended the officers’ material school at Harvard, and then, with the rank of ensign, was stationed for the remainder of the war at the Charlestown Navy Yard.

After the Greenman business was moved to Hampton, Mr. Pethybridge retired and the elder Mr. Greenman died in 1929. Mr. Greenman later entered a partnership with Harold W. Winchester, of the Winchester Company, which was formed in 1919, and which occupies quarters in the same building with the Greenman Company.

Mr. Greenman is a director of the Hampton Co-operative Building and Loan Association, a director and treasurer of the Hampton Industries, Inc., vice-president and a director of the Hampton Associates, Inc., a director of the Rockingham National Bank, of Exeter, a director of Hampton in the New Hampshire Regional Seacoast Development Association, a director and treasurer of the New Hampshire Music Festival Association, Inc.

He was appointed by Governor Bridges to the New Hampshire Shore and Beach Preservation and Development commission, and was also commissioned by Governor Bridges to study occupational diseases in industries in New Hampshire, to which he was re-appointed by Governor Murphy.

Mr. Greenman is a major on Governor Murphy’s military staff.

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