Robert P Griffin

Representative and a Senator from Michigan; born in Detroit, Wayne County, Mich., November 6, 1923; attended public schools in Garden City and Dearborn, Mich.; during the Second World War enlisted in 1943 and served three years in the U.S. Army, fourteen months in the European theater; graduated, Central Michigan College at Mount Pleasant 1947; received law degree from University of Michigan Law School 1950; admitted to the bar in 1950 and commenced the practice of law in Traverse City, Mich.; elected as a Republican to the Eighty-fifth and to the four succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1957, until his resignation May 10, 1966; appointed on May 11, 1966, to the United States Senate to fill vacancy caused by the death of Patrick V. McNamara; elected November 8, 1966, to full six-year term commencing January 3, 1967; reelected in 1972 and served from May 11, 1966, to January 2, 1979; Republican whip 1969-1977; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1978; is a resident of Traverse City, Mich. Robert Paul Griffin was born in Detroit on Nov. 6, 1923, the eldest of four children of Julius and Beulah Griffin. His father was a foreman at a Pontiac assembly plant. Young Mr. Griffin also worked on auto assembly lines, until he enrolled at Central Michigan College (now University). He was the first in his family to attend college. His studies were interrupted by service in the Army in Europe during World War II. After graduating from Central Michigan in 1947, he received a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1950. He went into law practice in Traverse City. His son Richard is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Michigan. Besides his son, Mr. Griffin’s survivors include his wife, the former Marjorie Anderson, whom he married in 1947; two other sons, Paul and James; a daughter, Jill; 13 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.