Reuben Morris Greenberg

Reuben Morris Greenberg, IV, 71, of Charleston, SC, died Wednesday, September 24, 2014. His funeral service will be held Sunday, September 28, 2014 in Synagogue Emanu-El at 3:00 p.m. Interment, Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens. Arrangements by J. Henry Stuhr, Inc. Downtown Chapel.

Reuben Greenberg, IV was born June 24, 1943 in Houston, TX, son of Clarence Green and Willie Mae Johnson Green. His father was a Russian immigrant and his mother was African-American. Reuben became an Ashkenazi Jew after he converted to his father's religion of Judaism at the age of 26.

Reuben was a member of Synagogue Emanu-El and was a veteran of the United States Coast Guard. He held a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Anthropology from San Francisco State University and Master's degrees of Public Administration and City Planning, both from the University of California, Berkeley, attained in 1969 and 1975. He was also a graduate of the FBI Academy. Reuben taught as an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Florida International University. During his career in law enforcement, he served as the Undersheriff of the Chatham County Sheriff's Department in Savannah, GA, as a major with Savannah's city police department, as Chief of Police at Opa-locka, FL, and as Chief Deputy Sheriff of Orange County, FL. In 1982, he moved from his position as the Deputy Director of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to serve as Chief of Police in Charleston, SC until his retirement in 2005.

Chief Greenberg was a well respected criminologist who was invested in improving the Charleston community. He added a K-9 bomb and drug unit, a harbor patrol, and a crime lab to the police department and was committed to remaining accessible to the public. He was known for the department's presence on Charleston streets whether it was on foot, on bicycles, on horseback or sometimes even on roller skates. His leadership was instrumental during the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Chief Greenberg is remembered for his combative policing tactics and for his charismatic personality; his legacy will live on in the Holy City for years to come.

Chief Greenberg received the Justice Professional of the Year Award in 1991 from the Southern Criminal Justice Foundation, the Foundation for Improvement of Justice 1989 Achievement Award and the Free Spirit Award from the Freedom Forum in 1994 for distinguished success in fighting crime. He worked with Arthur Gordon, a consulting editor of Guideposts, to author "Let's Take Back Our Streets" in 1989, a book about how he strived to take back the streets of Charleston from criminals and what he thought other law officers could do to accomplish the same.

He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Sarah Horne Greenberg of Charleston, SC; two sisters, Carolyn Jones and Sharon Callaway (James); two brothers, Herbert W. Green (Donna) and Bertrand Green, all of Houston, TX.