Early Life and Family
Griscom was born in New York City, the son of Clement Acton Griscom and Genevieve Sprigg Ludlow. As a boy, his interest in birds showed itself as early as 1898. In 1907, he found fellow nature enthusiasts when he joined the Linnaean Society of New York.
Griscom received an A.B. degree, with a major in pre-law, from Columbia University in 1912. Despite initial resistance on the part of his parents, he entered Cornell University as a graduate student of ornithology, studying under Arthur A. Allen. Louis Agassiz Fuertes was one of his neighbors, and they became good friends. Griscom's master's thesis dealt with field identification of ducks of the eastern United States, and he received his A.M. degree from Cornell in 1915. He taught there and at the University of Virginia, and continued to study toward a doctorate. However, financial pressures prevented him from completing that degree, even though his father ultimately consented to his career choice.
Griscom married Edith Sumner Sloan on September 14, 1926; the couple had three children, Edith Rapallo, Andrew, and Joan Ludlow. Griscom was an enthusiastic opera- and concert-goer and accomplished pianist.
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