Jerry Griffin
On Sept. 22, 2024, Jerry Griffin died peacefully in his home in Grand Haven, Michigan, where he and wife Anne Burford Griffin had lived for the last 22 years.
He was born on Jan. 5, 1942, the son of Walter A. and Vera Blackwood Griffin and the brother of Walter L. and Leta Ambrose, all of whom predeceased him.
Jerry was an All-State football player for Springhill High School and was selected to play in the state All- Star game, catching a pass from Homer’s Bobby Flurry for the only points in a North victory of 6-0.
Though recruited by LSU, Arkansas, and the University of Houston, Jerry signed with receiver coach Huey Williamson to play football for Louisiana Tech, where he was a 4-year letterman.
As one of Tech’s tri-captains his senior year, Jerry and teammate Mickey Slaughter broke Tech passing and receiving records. He was named to the All-Gulf States squad twice and to the first team of Williamson Mid-Bracket All-Americans in 1961.
After college Jerry sold life insurance, first to North Texas seniors and later at Tech and was named to insurance’s Million Dollar Round Table virtually every year, eventually serving as head of Ruston’s Fidelity Union insurance agency.
A strong supporter of Tech athletics, Jerry loved coaching his Little League teams. He owned Tech Village trailer park and Griffin Ridge, a residential development near Mitcham Orchards. Jerry coached Ruston High’s girls’ softball team in later years.
Soon before his death, Jerry was asked by a health team to name the city of his residency.
He thought long in a mind overtaken by Parkinson’s and finally answered “Ruston,” for even Parkinson’s could not obliterate his vivid memories of his days hunting and fishing in Lincoln Parish and the friendships he built at friend Bill Cox’s Shell station.
Jerry is survived by his wife, Anne; his son, an internist in Chicago, Dr. Jason Griffin, Jason’s wife Noretta and son Colin, Charleston, S.C.; his son Dr. Clint Griffin, an emergency room doctor in Holland, Michigan, Clint’s wife Angela and their children, Haley, Washington, D.C., Colton, Lansing, Michigan, and Braden Louisville, Kentucky.
Memorial services will be held on Dec. 14, 2024, at Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
