Durante Avan Griffin Jr.

Durante Avan Griffin Jr., 80, of Greensboro, passed away Sunday, May 24, 2026 after a brief illness. A memorial gathering will be held from 2 to 4 pm on Sunday, June 7 at Hanes-Lineberry Funeral Service, 515 North Elm Street, Greensboro, NC. The family invites all who knew him to attend and share their favorite memories.

Born November 14, 1945 to the late Durante Avan Griffin Sr. and Mary Ivan Griffin in Lexington, he graduated from Lexington Senior High before earning his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University. He taught biology and physics for 40 years, first at Oak Ridge Military Academy and then at Grimsley Senior High School, in a classroom filled with excitement and wonder and the toy cars he used to demonstrate the principles of momentum and inertia. He coached Grimsley’s men’s and women’s swim teams for 30 years, leading them to multiple state championships, and he managed the swimming pool at Grimsley for even longer, from the day it opened in 1976 until it was demolished in 2015, in addition to operating pools throughout the city of Greensboro. If you enjoyed swimming at any public pool in Greensboro during those years, it’s highly likely it was because Durante Griffin was keeping the chlorine high and the pH balanced, or fixing the pump no one else understood, or had trained the lifeguards to keep you safe.

He loved to fish and work in his garden. He loved Corvettes and Demon Deacon sports and Lexington barbecue. But more than any of these things, Durante Griffin loved his family. He and his wife, Kathy Glenn Griffin, enjoyed over 51 happy years of marriage. During those years he opened the door for her every time she needed to get into a car: this tells you pretty much all you need to know. As a father he was kind and understanding and patient. He delighted in watching his sons grow up, and he took enthusiastic interest in the things that interested them. He modeled every single day what it meant to be a caring husband, a selfless father, what it meant to be a good man. In retirement he devoted himself to being a grandfather, passing on to his grandchildren the same excitement and wonder about the world he shared with so many generations of students, showing them how to grow tomatoes, how to propagate flowers from a cutting, how to catch a fish in the surf of Ocean Isle Beach as the sun dropped out of sight.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Durante and Mary Ivan, and his brother, Jimmy Griffin. He is survived by his wife Kathy; his son Robbie Griffin, his wife Liz, and their children Olivia and Leo; his son Matthew Griffin and his husband Raymie Wolfe; and his brother Richard Griffin and his wife Janice.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial contribution to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Or just think of him the next time you eat a really good tomato from the garden.