Gordon Dix Griffin, 96

Gordon Dix Griffin, 96 Gordon Dix Griffin, age 96, died on January 29 in Skillman, NJ. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he was a long time resident of the Trenton and Princeton areas. After graduating from Trenton High School and Princeton University,class of 1940,Gordon served as a forward observer in the U.S. Army’s 119th Field Artillery during World War II. He participated in five campaigns in the European Theatre of Operations, including Normandy, The Rhineland, and The Ardennes. He was awarded the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Bronze Star. Following the war, Gordon attended law school at the University of Pennsylvania on the GI bill. A practicing attorney, he co-founded along with the late Ralph Mason, the Princeton law firm of Mason, Griffin & Pierson. Gordon’s long association with Ralph Mason began when they met at a YMCA camp on the Delaware River where Mason was a counselor and Gordon a camper. Years later, in 1948, they began their lasting professional relationship when Gordon became an associate of Montgomery & Mason. In 1955, the partnership of Mason & Griffin was formed and from then on the firm developed and grew, taking on partners and changing its name, to become the leading firm in the region it is today. Gordon served for many years as the municipal attorney for the Township of Princeton and the Borough of Princeton. He was past president of the Mercer County Legal Aid Society, the Princeton Bar Association, the Mercer County Bar Association, and the New Jersey Institute of Local Government Attorneys. He was a trustee of the Mercer County Bar Foundation. Inspired by and sometimes in concert with his wife of 57 years, the late Sallie Fell Griffin who died in 1999, Gordon volunteered in many community organizations and institutions. He was president of the Social Service Bureau of Princeton, the Princeton Lions Club, the New Jersey Unit of Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, and the Rockingham Association. He was a past trustee of the Nassau Club, the Westminster Choir College, and the Princeton Senior Resource Center. One of the original residents of Stonebridge at Montgomery, where he lived for the last 12 years, Gordon was active at its opening, serving as the first president of its residents’ association. Gordon was an avid reader of history, and also shared a love of travel with his wife. Together they wrote and produced dozens of travel journals of their many trips, full of history, wit, and insight, which his children treasure today. Throughout his life Gordon delighted family and friends with his masterful skill on the harmonica, and without these performances no family party was complete. He had a beautiful singing voice and loved to entertain with the old standards. He remained an enthusiastic and highly competitive crossword puzzler until the end of his life. Gordon is survived by a daughter, Sallie van Merkensteijn of Philadelphia, two sons and daughters-in-law, Gordon and Jenifer Griffin of Princeton and Henry Griffin and Pamela Wintle of Washington D.C., a daughter and son-in-law, Margaret Griffin and Scott Sillars of Princeton, nine grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. Interment will be with his wife at All Saints’ Cemetery in Princeton. The family is planning a memorial celebration to take place in June around the time of his birthday. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Princeton Senior Resource Center, 45 Stockton Steet, Princeton NJ 08540 or The D&R Greenway Land Trust, 1 Preservation Place, Princeton NJ 08540. Arrangements are under the direction of the Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.