George Hathaway Griffin ’47

George Hathaway Griffin ’47 died on January 2, 2006, in Bellevue, Washington.

Born on July 14, 1926, in Boston, he prepared for college at South Portland High School and became a member of Theta Delta Chi Fraternity at Bowdoin, which he entered in 1943. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army from November of 1944 to July of 1946, attaining the rank of technician 5th grade. After the war, he returned to Bowdoin and graduated cum laude in 1948. He studied in 1949 at the University of Paris in France and then spent a year with Doubleday and Company in New York City as a trainee. From 1951 to 1969, he was a salesman and sales manager with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company in New York City, St. Louis, Chicago, and San Francisco. In 1969, he joined Marsh & McLennan in sales management in San Francisco. He moved to that company’s Seattle office in 1975, where he became senior vice president in 1981, managing director in 1982, and deputy head of office in 1986. After he retired in 1991, he was a director of the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra for many years and its president for two years. He was active with the Business Volunteers for the Arts, serving as its president for two years. He was also a member of the Overlake Golf Country Club and the Rainier Club. He was married in 1962 to Ray Carol Margaret Peruso, who survives him, as do two sons, David Griffin of Albuquerque, NM, and Geoffrey Griffin of Snoqualmie, WA; a daughter, Nancy G. Anderson of La Canada Flintridge, CA; and three grandchildren.