Henry V. Griffith

WESLACO - Weslaco - Lt Col Henry "Hank" Griffith, 93, passed away peacefully at John Knox Village on Saturday, May 20th, 2017. Hank was born in Barrington, Rhode Island on October 17, 1923 to Benjamin and Sara Griffith. As a child he and his four brothers grew up in Barrington, Rhode Island, Lynbrook, New York and later moved to Center Moriches, Long Island, New York. In January 1943, Hank joined the United States Army, receiving his commission as a Second Lieutenant in August of that year. While stationed at Tinker Army Air Base in 1944 he married his lifelong companion to be, Arvilla, on August 20, 1944. Within two months, in October 1944, Lt Griffith joined the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign in Guam, a US territory in Micronesia. While there, he was promoted to First Lieutenant in March of 1945. The next year, when he returned from Guam, he was relieved from Active Duty and transferred to the US Army Officer Reserve Corps. He used the time away from active service to complete his Bachelor of Science degree at Oklahoma State University, a university located in Arvilla's home state of Oklahoma. Within a year after graduation in 1949, Hank was recalled to active duty for the Korean War, spending a year in the Republic of Korea and being promoted to the rank of Captain in 1953. After Korea, he transferred to Japan in 1954. He remained in the logistics career field for the rest of his career, being promoted to Major in 1961 and then to Lieutenant Colonel in 1965. Along the way, until his retirement in 1967, he continued to pursue academics, obtaining a Master of Science in Commerce degree at the University of Alabama in 1961. During his last Tour of Duty with the United States Army, he was appointed as the Chief of Supply for the entire Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft Sam Houston, Texas. Hank retired from active Army duty on October 1, 1967, as a Lieutenant Colonel after 20 years of service with numerous Awards, Medals and Commendations, including one of the Army's highest awards, the Legion of Merit, for distinguished service to the United States of America. Hank spent the next four years in pursuit of academic excellence, again at Oklahoma State University, obtaining another Master of Science degree in 1969 followed by a Doctorate of Education in 1971. He then went on to perhaps his most satisfying professional achievement with Richland College near Dallas, Texas. He developed and implemented the Horticulture Department in 1972. Richland College asked him to stay and teach the curriculum he had developed. He remained a tenured Professor at Richland College until his retirement in 1986. He and Arvilla then moved to Norman Oklahoma to remain near the academic culture they so prized as an integral part of their lives. They did spend several months each winter at South Padre Island and loved the area so much that they moved to John Knox Village in Weslaco Texas in 2002. Hank was an avid backpacker and bicyclist, taking numerous trips with his adult children hiking throughout the Appalachian Mountain chain or the Ouachita Mountains in Southeast Oklahoma, or bicycling across Texas, or from Illinois to Pennsylvania as well as many local trips. He spent a great deal of time gardening, cultivating gorgeous flowers and ripe vegetables in raised beds in his yard and painting in numerous mediums such as watercolor, pencil, pen and ink, and charcoal. Hank was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Arvilla, in 2014. He was also preceded in death by three of his four brothers, Ben, Harvey and David and survived by his youngest brother, Ralph. He is survived by his five children - Rich, Tom, Kathy, Rhiannon, and John. The Interment will be next to his wife in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery at 9:15 on Wednesday 28 June 2017.