Richard Griffin 1928-2020

Richard Griffin was the son of a journalist, and–in a move that might be attributed to destiny–became a journalist himself in his late sixties. The experiences of his first six decades would provide an excellent (if unusual) training for his ultimate career.

The oldest of six children, Richard grew up in metropolitan Boston. His father was editor of the Boston Post, the largest newspaper in New England; and he himself was always at home in the journalistic world. He enrolled at Harvard with the class of 1951, but left after two years to join the Society of Jesus. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1962, a year marked by the opening session of Vatican II. From 1968 to 1975, at the height of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, he was Catholic chaplain at Harvard. In 1975 he was released from his vows and left the Jesuits, while retaining lifelong ties of friendship to the Jesuit community. His subsequent career was marked by profound engagement in the field of aging, as a consultant and as director of the Cambridge (MA) Council on Aging.

Over the years, Richard wrote occasional occasional guest columns in papers ranging from the New York Times to the Cambridge Chronicle. In 1997, he began to write weekly columns for the Chronicle; within a couple of years, the column would acquire a new title, “Growing Older.” It was eventually distributed to thirty or forty papers in eastern Massachusetts, and was published until Richard’s ninetieth birthday in 2018. Another column, “Soundings in Spirituality,”  was published by the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune for several years beginning in 1998.

The columns reflect the variety of Richard’s interests: aging and spirituality, of course, but also sports (he played softball  well into his eighties); music (Elgar was a favorite); history (he had witnessed a great deal of it); national politics; and civic life.

Richard was married to Susan Keane, who was for many years a professor of French at Simmons College; their daughter, Emily Griffin, graduated from Harvard College the week of her father’s fiftieth reunion. Richard took great delight in his immediate and extended family, and he loved nothing better than conversations with new and old friends. One of them characterized this activity as a ministry of friendship, and he continued to exercise it to the end of his life.