William Leonard Griffith ’51

Griff died May 9, 2006, having spent his last 34 years in his childhood home in Roland Park, Md.

Griff was born in Baltimore Jan. 21, 1928. He prepared at Gilman School and served as an Army paratrooper in Japan before coming to Princeton, where he majored in architecture, played junior varsity football and varsity lacrosse, and was a member of the 1951 national championship lacrosse team. He is still Princeton's record holder for the most goals in one game (10). He roomed with Jim Gorter and Dick Nash and belonged to Ivy.

In 1966 he and Joan R. Sanger were married. Until 1995, he owned William L. Griffith Co., a general-construction firm in Baltimore.

Known for his prowess as a sailor, he will be remembered for his steely-eyed success in racing his Catalina 22 on the Chesapeake. The boat was named Lilac Alabaster Nights, after a speech Adlai Stevenson '22 once gave when referring to Princeton.

Griff is survived by Joan; their children, William and Elizabeth; and his half-sister, Mai D. West. His half-brother, Franklin Dick '37, predeceased him, and his brother, Edward Griffith '49, died in November 2006.

To paraphrase Tennyson, Farewell to the sailor lad who sang in his boat on the bay!