John Edward Greenleaf

John graduated from Springfield High School (SHS) in 1950. While there he was a member of the band, student council, rifle team, The National Athletic Scholarship Society of Secondary Schools and the tennis team. Along with James Means, they won the interscholastic state tennis doubles championship in 1950 played on the old courts near the library in Champaign, Illinois.

He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Education in 1955 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIU-C). While there he was a member of the marching band (freshman year), the tennis team and was Vice-President of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. From February 1952 to February 1953 John was on active duty with the United States Army (Illinois National Guard) 44th Infantry Division Band stationed at Camp Cooke, California (near Santa Maria). He was drum major for about six months. In 1954 and 1955 he received the George Huff Award for Scholarship and was elected to Phi Epsilon Kappa.

He received a Master of Arts Degree in Physical Education in 1956 from New Mexico Highlands University (Las Vegas), a Master of Science Degree in Physiology in 1962 from the UIU-C; and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Human Environmental Physiology in 1963, also from the UIU-C when he was awarded membership in Sigma XI, the scientific research society. In 1955–1956 Greenleaf was a teaching assistant at Highlands and a Director of Recreation for the Town of Las Vegas. In 1957–1962 he had teaching and research assistantships at the UIU-C: A National Science Foundation Summer Fellowship in 1962 and a National Institute of Health pre-Doctoral Fellowship in 1961–1963.

Greenleaf worked as a research physiologist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations (NASA) Ames Research Center (ARC) at Moffett Field, California (near Palo Alto) from October 1963 to June 2002. In 1966–1967 he was awarded a Swedish Medical Research Council Senior Post-Doctoral Fellowship to study at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology III in the Karolinska Institut, Stockholm. Other post-doctoral and adjunct professor appointments included: Polish Academy of Sciences Department of Applied Physiology in Warsaw funded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Institutes of Health in 1973 (3 months), 1974 (1 month) 1977 (2 months) and 1980 (3 months); San Francisco State University (1988–2002); School of Medicine Kitakyushu, Japan 1989 (1 month, 1991 1 month); University of Northern Colorado, Greely (1994–1998); University of California, Davis (1996–2001); Danish Aerospace Medical Center of Research, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen (1997–1 month, 1998 1 month); Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto 1997 (2 months) and San Jose State University (2002–2004).

In 2005 John was presented with a certificate of Membership into the Hall of Fame.

John married Carol Johnson in 1960 and they now live in Saratoga, California.