Tribute: From John's Friend, Bill Griswold

I have been thinking about how much my life at and after my service at CSU was affected by you, particularly in the years after you came to us full-time: twenty or so years ago, if my memory is right.

My first memory is the time another faculty member, Diane Margolf, and I shared a ride with you and a group of students to an historic spot in Wyoming, Fort Bridger, as I recall. What marvels you related as we drove that morning, what amazing knowledge you had of the various issues that a simple place out in the wilderness could hold for us. Then there were  times, daily, when I would arrive at the Clark Building to prepare my 8 o’clock Western Civ lecture, assuming I was the first to be there, and your voice would come from down the hall, “Good morning, Professor Griswold!” knowing full well that you had been there at least 15 minutes before me. I began to believe you slept in your office!

When I joined the Gaffers you began to drop by every Friday morning at 10:45 to pick me up. And then we would begin talking. How many times I was dumbfounded by your knowledge of music. I had sung some Mozart and Beethoven portions and even the entire Brahms Requiem, but you had not stopped with a few sections. You could recall the tenor part of many of the major choral masters: Verdi, Mozart, Beethoven, others. And as we spoke you were singing a major  part in a local barbershop quartet every week or so!

And there was always more: not only how to shoot a rifle, but how to sight the rifle, how  to carry the animal out of the forest to the car, how to take the dead deer to the person who cut it all up, and on and on and on. Alas, as we drove the story occasionally became more personal, and I would realize how there were times when your service in Vietnam had been very difficult and dangerous. I remember, too, how sad it was in civilian life to raise a child who could not lead a normal life, and how for some time you had worked to help children who had been badly treated in their early times.

When I was in college, I learned of the “uomo universale”, the Renaissance term for a universal man. Of all my many friends, John, you are certainly among the first on my list of universal men.

Thanks for sharing some of that life with me.