Born on April 22, 1938, in Florida, Griffis held a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (‘60), and two master’s degrees (’65, ’72) and a Ph.D. (’71) from Oklahoma State University. He was also a graduate of the U.S. Army War College (’80).
Becoming head of the Army Corps of Engineers’ New York District in 1983 and working on such important projects as early-warning radar systems and flood-prevention programs, he ultimately spent a quarter-century in the military.
On November 7, 2015, the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) presented him with a lifetime achievement award. It was a fitting tribute for a man who had been a national director of the organization, which unites its members in both the public and private sectors to prepare for — and overcome — natural and manmade disasters; a past president and director of its New York City Post; and a longtime head of his Post’s Scholarship Fund.
A highlight for him each year since 1989, when he took on the duty, was overseeing the SAME New York City Post Scholarship Fund, which has provided millions of dollars in scholarships to thousands of engineering and architecture students at colleges, universities and service academies across the country — including a large cohort from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, whose faculty he joined in 2000 after teaching at Columbia University for several years.
