Abel had the firm belief that the traditional village life of the African was going to end and turned down a Chewa chiefdom to enter the 'new world'.
Abel married a local of the Shona people, Elizabeth Sibanda, and David was born in the Globe and Phoenix mine compound, the only child of this marriage.
Green took personal interest in Phiri's education and encouraged him in school and gave him books allowing him to achieve high grades.
Phiri graduated from Goromonzi with amongst the best A level results in Southern Africa at the time, with 2 'A's and 2 'B's in English, history, geography and chemistry.
Phiri also met another member of the congregation at trinity, Mr. Henry Fosbrooke (10 October 1908 – 25 April 1996), the head of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute from 1956.
He rang Mr Green at Rhodesia Iron and Steel Company who informed his father of the good news.
One of the most generous contributors, with a fifty pound gift, was a Dr. Scott; father of Zambia's former Republican Vice-President Dr.
[2] From 1974 to 1982, he was managing director of the Roan Consolidated Mines,[3] In 1982 he was appointed Zambia's Ambassador to Scandinavia in Sweden, a position he held until 1984.
He died in Lusaka, Zambia on 16 January 2012 from complications arising from a brain stem infarction he suffered 10 days earlier.