Mr. Larry "Steve" Steven Griffin

Steve Griffin (legally named Larry Steven Griffin but his mother refused to call him Larry) stamped his one-way ticket to heaven the morning of Friday, May 22, 2020 after a short but brave fight against brain cancer with his family at his side. #cancersucks

Born September 7, 1952 in Memphis, TN to the late William “Bill” Larkin Griffin and Freda Faye (Moore). Also preceded in death by his younger brother William “Billy” Griffin.

The family moved to Texas when he was six years old and he has been a proud Texan ever since.

He spent six years in the Navy reserves and earned his degree in mechanical engineering which ultimately led to a 35-year career at L-3 of which he retired from in 2018.

In 1981 he met the love of his life due to the persistent matchmaking attempts of a mutual co-worker named Mary Huff, who we are forever indebted to. Her intuition that they would make a great couple was spot on and we are so grateful for the beautiful and wonderful life our family has had as a result.

Steve is survived by his wife, his lady, Bonnie Griffin and children, Amy Griffin Shandrowski (Greg Shandrowski), Shelley Rojas (Anthony Rojas) and Cody Bloxom. His seven grandchildren that gave him the name “Poppy”, were his pride and joy, Marcella, Chase, Aidan, Lewis, Rayne, Larkin and Lenny, great-grandchild, Sadie, his mother-in-law that he loved and took care of as his own, Emma Gregg, niece, Chloe Griffin, and many more sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews. Coming from a small family, Steve frequently shared how blessed he felt to marry into a large family that accepted him as their own. We only hope we expressed to him enough that he in fact was the biggest blessing to our family and he was our rock.

His wife Bonnie always told him he was her Mr. Wonderful and we agree, if we had to pick one word to describe him that it’s a pretty good one. He was a loving, dedicated, and generous man with high morals and character. Steve was a rule-follower and a straight shooter (pun intended) with strong convictions about things he felt were important like how men should behave and treat women, our freedom and rights as American citizens and most of all the importance of family.

He loved ice cream, snow cones, bacon, watching westerns and musicals, and most of all watching and cheering for his kids and then grandkids at their sporting games. He was our #1 fan and he believed the louder he yelled from the stands the more support we felt. Apologies to those who sat within close proximity of him.

He loved all kinds of music and would sing loudly in the car, albeit off-key sometimes, to anything and everything from Frank Sinatra, Toby Keith and the song, Eye of the Tiger was one of his favorites. He enjoyed all types of movies as well, but it infuriated him if a movie didn’t have a happy ending or if the good guy didn’t win, he saw no point in watching them.

He taught his daughters to catch, throw and drive a standard car no differently than he did his son. He taught us to do things right and to finish what you start. He was meticulous yet has stacks and stacks of papers and books that were his organized chaos. Growing up we were never allowed to have a fake Christmas tree because; “fake tree equals fake presents” and tinsel must be applied a single strand at a time. In more recent years, buying presents for him was easy. Shotgun shells and a box of chocolate-covered cherry cordials were all he wanted and every year his excitement never faded when he opened them.

Going back to college at age 38 while working full-time and raising kids, he showed us by example that it’s never too late to continue to educate and improve yourself.

His passion and happy place in recent years was clay shooting with his Team O.L.B. (One Lousy Bird). These are some of his fondest memories with his friends that knew him as “Poncho.” Sharing his passion with his family, teaching all of us how to shoot, safely and responsibly was important to him. Days after his diagnosis in December, his only wish was to spend a day with his family at their farm shooting with all of his kids and grandkids and we are forever thankful we made that happen as a gift for him and for us.

He believed there was no bad day a trip to the range couldn’t fix and that all you really needed was God, the bible, family, baseball and guns.

“Let this be a celebration, not a death. I had a wonderful life.” — Steve Griffin

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Per his request, a celebration of Steve’s life will take place at 10:00 am on Friday, May 29, 2020 at Bluebonnet Hills in Colleyville, TX by invitation only due to COVID restrictions. The service will also be available on the Bluebonnet Hills Facebook page via Facebook Live.

The viewing will be held Thursday, May 28, 2020 from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm with an occupancy limit of 50 per hour.

Steve specifically asked that everyone wear colorful clothing. Hawaiian shirts and tropical attire are preferred—no black clothing.