David P. Griff ’62

David died of cancer May 11, 2024, in New York City after 44 days at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

He came to Princeton from Fallsburg (N.Y.) Central High School. He was in the band and drama club, co-editor of the school paper, and valedictorian. At Princeton, David was in the marching and concert bands and ate at Dial. He roomed with Bill Levinson and Mike Huberman. He spent his junior year in France. His thesis was on Algeria’s evolution post-1830. Accepted at Harvard Law School, he got married in August 1962, doing two years of graduate work before getting his law degree.

After working in international law for five years at a New York City firm, David moved his family to Paris. Initially he worked at a French firm, but soon started a private practice. Major clients included pharmaceutical firms and the film industry. After a divorce, he continued to practice law and lived on a barge moored on the Seine for 16 years. The comedian Dan Rowan introduced him to French “river life.”

David met Roni Beth Tower in the mid-1990s, and they married. The class extends its sympathies to Roni Beth; David’s sons; Roni Beth’s children; and their seven grandchildren.