George Garrett Byers Griffin

George Garrett Byers Griffin of Washington, DC passed away unexpectedly on March 31 of injuries sustained by a fall. He was predeceased by his parents Mary and Harold C. (Ike) Griffin of Gaffney, SC. and his two siblings Mary Carroll (Makie) Griffin Shell and Harold Carroll Griffin, Jr. both of South Carolina.

Born in in Istanbul, Turkey, he attended the American Community School at Robert College. His father managed the business interests of Liggett & Myers Tobacco in Greece and Turkey. World War II forced the family to leave Turkey and return to the United States where they moved to the family seat in Gaffney, SC.

George graduated from the Darlington School in Rome, Georgia and the University of South Carolina in 1957, with a degree in Political Science. After a two-year stint as a U.S. Naval Officer, he joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1959. His initial posting was in Naples, Italy and then Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) with his wife Emmie Young from Greenwood, SC, from whom he was later divorced. He married his second wife Christina O’Dunne of Washington in l969 at the Ambassador’s residence in Kathmandu, Nepal.

A decorated, senior diplomat in the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce, Griffin had a diverse and wide-ranging career in the Foreign Service. Over a 40-year period he served in 15 posts in Africa, Asia, and Europe, interspersed with seven managerial assignments in Washington, winning several top awards and bonuses for performance. His later assignments included Deputy Chief of Mission in Nairobi, Kenya, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Consul General in Milan, Italy, and Senior Inspector. He helped create the position of Coordinator for Business Affairs in the State Department and found pragmatic solutions to managerial problems at Foreign Service posts around the world. For several years, he was Vice Chairman of the Senior Officers Association at the State Department.

Some of his favorite career memories included tracking the notorious mobster Lucky Luciano to his grave, being a life-long anathema to the Soviet Union and conducting sensitive negotiations with the fledgling government of Bangladesh. He won awards for reporting in Pakistan and in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, and kudos from American business leaders in India, Nigeria and Korea, where he was the Commercial Counselor.

George always had a keen interest in photography. In Pakistan, for fun, he created an exhibit entitled “George’s Gorgeous Beautiful Girls” (GGBG), a compilation of beautiful women from around the world, which was exhibited in several venues by The U.S. Information Agency.

After his retirement from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1999, Griffin and Christina created a home in a former library in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, where they resided. Griffin served on several non-profit boards of directors, first as a founding member and vice chairman of the One Mountain Foundation, a community organization designed to serve the interests of the residents of two states and four counties which meet at the border of Blue Ridge Summit. One of its early achievements was the creation of a $5 million community center at nearby Fort Ritchie, Maryland. From 2005 to 2011 Griffin was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the PenMar Development Corporation, headquartered at the former Fort Ritchie in Cascade, Maryland. He guided PenMar to collaboration with Corporate Office Properties Trust, in an effort to bring Fort Ritchie back to life as a mixed-use civilian community.

He was a trustee of Rhino Ark, a non-profit conservation organization in Kenya, dedicated to saving populations of the endangered mountain rhinoceros and to the preservation of forests critical to that country’s water supply. He was a member of Diplomatic and Consular Officers Retired, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, a life member of the Punjab Club of Lahore, Pakistan, and was President of the Monterey Country Club in Blue Ridge Summit. Earlier, he was a member of the World Affairs Council of Washington, and Meridian International House.

He is survived by his wife Christina of Washington and Blue Ridge Summit, PA, his son Sean, wife Cathy and granddaughter Hartley of Isle of Palms, SC and his daughter Schuyler of Kauai, HI

A celebration of life will take place in South Carolina on April 20th and in Washington, DC at a later date in May.