Personal Life
He married Camilla Yvonne Ganteaume on September 14, 1935; after her death at the age of 49 on August 10, 1963, he remarried to Marion Hopkins Schaefer on November 21, 1964. He and his first wife had two children: Linda Louise Griffin, and Navy officer Charles Donald Griffin, Jr.
After retiring from the Navy, he resided in Washington D.C., where he was a vestryman at St. Alban's Episcopal Church and a member of the Army and Navy Club and the Chevy Chase Club. He died of a heart attack at the age of 90 while playing golf at his summer residence, Bald Peak Colony Club, in Melvin Village, New Hampshire.
His decorations include the Navy Distinguished Service Medal with Gold Star; the Bronze Star; and the Presidential Unit Citation with two Gold Stars. Foreign awards include the Order of George I with rank of Supreme Commander (Greece); the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic with rank of Knight Grand Cross; the Philippine Legion of Honor with rank of Commander; the Order of Military Merit with Silver Star (South Korea); the Order of the Rising Sun with Double Rays (Japan); and the Medal of Pao-ting (Republic of China).
He held the Gray Eagle Award as the senior active-duty aviator in the Navy from July 31, 1967 until his retirement on February 1, 1968.
He is great-grandfather to Elizabeth Garner LeStage, Charles Richard Griffin LeStage, Cora Abigail Griffin, and Xyacery Bryant.
An oral history is archived at the United States Naval Institute.
Read more about this topic: Charles D. Griffin
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“Adolescence is a tough time for parent and child alike. It is a time between: between childhood and maturity, between parental protection and personal responsibility, between life stage- managed by grown-ups and life privately held.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)
“The Virgin filled so enormous a space in the life and thought of the time that one stands now helpless before the mass of testimony to her direct action and constant presence in every moment and form of the illusion which men thought they thought their existence.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)