Composer
Frederick David Griggs was born on November 2, 1890 in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts and graduated from Chicopee High School. He was one of seven children, four boys and three girls.
Griggs graduated from the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now known as UMASS Amherst) in 1913. By the time he graduated, he had served as a student reporter for the SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN. While in school he lettered in track, was president of the student senate, participated in the rifle team that won the intercollegiate championship for three years, and was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
His interests covered a wide range, including participation in the drama society, Toastmasters, Y.M.C.A, the Glee Club (baritone), and was the percussionist for the orchestra, and a Music Leader for the Cadet Band. During his time at M.A.C. he composed several other songs, including a class song. Some of these are included in the same publication as "When Twilight Shadows Deepen". There is a quip in the M.A.C. class of 1913 INDEX, that Griggs autobiography would be easier to write if it was limited to "Things I have not done."
After graduation he did his graduate work at the University of Missouri School of Journalism continuing his study of Journalism and Economics.
Following his year at Missouri, he was assistant secretary and publicity agent of the Hampden County Improvement League in Massachusetts.
By 1917 he was the editor of the M.A.C. quarterly, Alumni Bulletin. Around the same time, he moved to Waltham to help organize the Middlesex County Extension Service, and later, the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation. In 1922 the House of the United States Congress listed him as Secretary of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau.
Griggs moved back to Springfield in 1925, and successfully ran for State Representative, from the fourth Hampden House District. He was reelected two years later.
Public Officials of Massachusetts 1927-28, Published By BOSTON REVIEW PUBLICITY SERVICE (Richard T. Howard) 6 Beacon Street, Boston, (9), Mass. Has the following listed for Griggs:
- GRIGGS. FRED D., 35 Eton St., Springfield, 4th Hampden House District, Republican.
- Born : Chicopee Falls, Nov. 2, 1890.
- Educated: Public Schools, Mass. Agricultural College, University of Missouri.
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- Business : Wholesale, Lumber and Boxes.
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- Organizations : Springfield Chamber of Commerce, Automobile Club, Kiwanis Club, University Club, Grange.
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- Public Office: Mass. House 1925 to 1928.
Massachusetts Governor Alvan T. Fuller appointed Griggs to the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1928. Subsequent Governors reappointed him to the board of the school (renamed Massachusetts State College in 1931) until his death on December 22, 1942 (illness).
In the February 11, 1930 special election for the Massachusetts Second Congressional District, Griggs became the first Republican in 40 years to lose that seat in the U.S. Congress.
Beginning in 1935, Griggs was executive secretary for the Springfield Taxpayers Association, and was particularly active, through that office in municipal affairs and in constructive efforts toward improved government.
At the time of his passing he was married to Gladys M. (Hinkley) Griggs.
Read more about this topic: When Twilight Shadows Deepen
Famous quotes containing the word composer:
“A nation creates music—the composer only arranges it.”
—Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857)
“Perhaps all music, even the newest, is not so much something discovered as something that re-emerges from where it lay buried in the memory, inaudible as a melody cut in a disc of flesh. A composer lets me hear a song that has always been shut up silent within me.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)
“Whenever [Leonard Bernstein] entered or exited a country he would fill in on his passport form not composer or conductor, but musician. Of course people in the press spent a lot of Lenny’s life telling him what he should have done; he should have been a concert pianist, he should have composed more.... And people wouldn’t let him live his own life. But he created his own career, in his own image.”
—John Mauceri (b. 1945)