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FRANCIS “FRANK” & “KAY” GRIFFIN
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November 16, 2005
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CLICK ON THE PHOTO OF MR. GRIFFIN TO GO TO LAGO ORGANIZATIONAL CHART.
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Dad was
born Francis Edward Griffin in May 1907 and Mom was born Catherine Edwina
Morrissey in February 1908 both in the small southern Massachusetts
town of Somerset. Somerset is
a bedroom community across the Taunton
River from Fall
River, MA and about 20 miles
east of Providence, RI.
Until car travel became common
trolley cars and the railroad were utilized to
commute to Fall River. As automobiles became more common then more
and more people commuted to Providence and,
today with superhighways they even commute to Boston.
My grandfather on my father’s side was a railroad person and the Griffin house was only about a block and a half from the
Somerset Village
RR Station. My Grandfather Griffin was first a Conductor
riding the trains to/from Boston
daily and then finally became a bridge-tender. He worked on the bridge over the Taunton River that was about ¼ mile south of
the RR Station. I never knew this
gentleman as he passed away in 1938. I
did know my Grandmother Griffin though and my Dad’s Sister Eleanor and
Brothers Neal and Harry. My
grandfather on my Mom’s side was a janitor at the Somerset High School
which at first was located several blocks from his home but eventually was
centralized further south in the Town.
I knew my Grandfather Morrissey and his wife quite well and spent time
with them when I attended part of my 5th Grade in Somerset. Similarly when I spent my Junior and Senior
High School Years at a Preparatory School in South Byfield, MA., I also spent
my vacations (other than Xmas and Summer) with the Morrisseys in Somerset.
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My Dad
went to High School in Somerset
along with my Mom. At the same time
but in different classes were Neal Griffin, Bill Egan, Tom Egan and Marjorie
(Egan) Proterra. After High School my
Dad went to Boston
to attend Wentworth Institute (similar to a Junior College today) and
received a “Degree” in Chemistry.
Thereafter he joined New England Oil Company in Fall
River and subsequently New
Haven, CT. as a
Chemist in their Laboratory. At the
same time my Mother went to school at Katherine Gibbs in Fall River and received a Secretarial
Degree. She then went to work for Mount Hope
which was a large Power Generation Plant located in Somerset.
While in New Haven Dad heard of the opportunity to go to Aruba. New
England Oil was affiliated with Standard Oil of Indiana and it was that
Company who was involved in initially getting Lago off the ground. He applied, was accepted and went to Aruba in 1929.
Of course, given the level of travel, communications and world
knowledge existing at the time, that was like going to the “Empty Quarter” in
Saudi Arabia
today. Dad originally roomed in the
Bachelor’s Quarters with G. L. (Lou) MacNutt.
Dad and Lou continued that friendship until they both died in their
90’s. In 1933 or 1934 after it was
evident that Lago was going to be viable and, due to the world economic
situation, probably the most viable opportunity that Dad had, he made the
decision to return to Somerset and marry his childhood “love” who was to
become my Mother and known as Kay versus her given name Catherine. They moved into Bungalow 126 and I was
conceived in December of 1935. Due to
citizenship problems, limited hospital capability and the fact that my Mom
had a difficult pregnancy (I was a pain from day one), Mom came back to the
States to give birth. I was born in
August of 1936 in a Catholic Hospital (Truesdale) in Fall River, MA. When I was about six weeks old we returned
to Aruba on I believe the SS J. A. Mowinkle. A lady recently described that voyage in
either one of Larry’s notes or perhaps one of Ginger’s and I guess I was a
handful. Nevertheless life progressed
for the Griffin family in Aruba. Dad had originally been in the Laboratory
in Lago as well and then moved to the Pressure Stills. He eventually went to Light Oils and then
into management moving up to Process Superintendent, then General
Superintendent and finally General Manager.
We moved from Bungalow 126 to 72 and then finally around 1950 to 287 which
was next door to Casa Grande. The
Charles Smith family was next door in 285.
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Mom was
not a Club person or Sports person but was very involved in helping many of
the younger men and ladies. It seemed
like there were always Bachelors, Teachers, Military Men etc around. I remember well during the War of making
weekly runs to the various searchlight and gun emplacements delivering pies,
cakes, cupcakes etc.
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We
frequently picked up Scottish, then American and finally young Dutch Marines
at the Savaneta Camp after Sunday Mass and brought them back to the Colony
for a swim and then a good home cooked Sunday meal. Of course, I was in seventh heaven being
amongst these “soldiers”.
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About the
time that my Dad decided that Lago was a viable living he also enticed his
old “baseball” buddies from High School to join him. My Uncle Neal and Bill Egan were first
followed by Tom Egan thereafter.
Marjorie Egan came down to visit and Joe Proterra fell in love and
proposed. I remember being the “ring
boy” in that wedding which I think was in 1939. In a similar manner my Uncle Neal met and
fell in love with my Aunt Mary who was the daughter of Stuart Harrison. They too were married in Aruba but left
before the War to go to the Dutch East Indies in Palembang.
That tour was short lived due to the War and they returned but finally
left Aruba in the late 40’s for Billings,
Montana. After Billings Neal was in the Belot
Refinery in Havana, then in Rio de Janiero
with Esso Brasiliero and finally with Creole Petroleum in Caracas.
To the best of my knowledge Bill Egan and Joe Proterra and Majorie
spent almost all their careers in Aruba with Joe spending some time on short
term assignments in Europe before finally
retiring.
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In 1959
Dad was offered the position of General Refinery Manager for the National
Iranian Oil Company refinery in Abadan,
Iran. In 1957 the premier of Iran Mossadegh (who
was a radical pro-Russian person) was overthrown (supposedly with the help of
our CIA) and the Shah was put on the throne.
NIOC which had been nationalized by Mossadegh in 1952 and taken from
what was to become British Petroleum was again allowed to reopen being
operated by a consortium of Western Oil Companies. For instance, when Dad was there his boss
was from Royal Dutch Shell, the production fields were headed up by a man
from Texaco and in Dad’s refinery his secretary was from Shell, his finance
man from BP his Administrative Assistant from Standard Oil of Ohio etc.
etc. Smartly the Shah had also
contractually required that all the senior NIOC Western Officials have an
Iranian Deputy. Hence, in Dad’s office
there were three desks one for him, one for his Iranian Deputy and one for a
Savak (Iranian CIA/FBI) Colonel. The
Savak Colonel was to “protect” Iran’s assets and quite frankly
keep the lid on the situation. In Dad
and Mom’s front yard one could look across the Shatt al Arab River
which neither the Iranians or Iraquis could decide where the line between the
countries was. The Iranians claimed
all the way to the Iraqi shore and vice versa. I can clearly remember staring at Iraqi
howitzers that only needed the pull of a lanyard to land some darn big shells
in our front yard. I visited Abadan after my last
year in College and once while I was in the Navy.
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Another
aside – The Iraqi Consul General to Iran at the time Dad was there
was Tariq Aziz. You may remember he
was recently Deputy Prime Minister for Saddam Hussein and is being prosecuted
now. He is a Christian and quite a nice
person actually. We met at a Christmas
Cocktail Party in 1961.
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In 1962
my Dad accepted a position with Esso Petroleum in London.
He was Vice President and Manufacturing Director for the British
affiliate of Exxon and, as such was in charge of three refineries in Fawley (Southampton),
Milford Haven (Wales) and
at Whitegate in Cobh, Ireland. My Mom in the meantime had become ill with
hepatitis while in Iran
and was spending a lot of time in the States.
She never said anything to us but, I have always suspected she knew there
was something more serious wrong from maybe 1960 onwards. Nevertheless, she had convinced Dad to
build a “retirement home” in Newtown,
CT and then further convinced
him to retire to enjoy it in 1964. In
the meantime, I had met my wife to be in Puerto Rico while in the Navy and we
were married in San Juan
in 1964. We too moved to CT (Stamford) in August
1964 and I went to work for Esso International in their Tanker
Department. Our first daughter Michele
was born in Stamford
and of course the Grandparents went crazy.
Dad in the meantime had returned to work part-time as a Consultant for
the International Executive Service Corps.
This Group still exists today and is for lack of a better term the
Executive Peace Corps. Dad was
responsible for evaluating situations in the Middle East
to determine if they were worthy of support and the sending of volunteers to
assist. It involved a lot of travel
but, his main interest with the interface he did with many Middle Eastern
leaders of business and the IESC Staff itself which was headed up by Frank
Pace (ex Secretary of the Army under Eisenhower) and the Chairman of IESC’s
Board was David Rockefeller of Chase Manhattan Bank.
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I got
antsy in the Fall of 1965 and accepted a position back in Puerto
Rico with Sea-Land Service Inc.
We moved back to the island in October 1965. Mom and Dad came to visit at Christmas time
and Mom and dramatically gone downhill in the three months we had been
gone. She was so bad that they had to
cut their stay in San Juan
short and then right after January 1 the fateful call from my Dad came that I
had better rush to Danbury CT
if I wanted to say goodbye to Mom. Ann
(my wife) and I left Michele with Ann’s Mother and rushed up and barely did
get our goodbyes in. It was sad for
both of them and us. Mom and so wanted
Dad to retire and enjoy living in comfort of the good old U S of A and I
think Dad had welcomed the idea too.
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But, he
did not welcome it as a single person.
Late in 1966 Dad called me in San Juan and
said that he was considering going to London
to try and convince a lady to become his second wife. It was a lady that both Mom and Dad had
known while they were in London
as she was a Administrative Assistant to another of Esso Petroleum’s Vice
Presidents. Donny and Dad were married
in January of 1967 and I was his Best Man.
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After
leaving IESC Dad also did some consulting with American Independent Oil
(Aminoil) which is a Kuwait Company with production and refining capacity in Kuwait. He worked at that until finally retiring
from all activities in the early 80’s.
In the meantime Dad and Donny had a boy in 1979 hence I have a half
brother and my two daughters have an uncle younger than them.
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Dad
finally passed away four years ago and ironically it was caused by a
fall. I marvel at all the sicknesses
he had where there were only marginal medical available and all the rinky
dink airlines he flew on without problem only to slip on a step in a small
town in NC and fall and hit his head and bleed to death because he was on
blood thinners and the bleeding could not be stopped. He was well into his 90s though and had
been married twice in excess of 30 years each and was happy with his life,
his sons and all the good things he did for so many. After leaving Aruba Queen Juliana of the Netherlands
made him a Knight in the House of Oranje Nassau as thanks for Dad’s efforts
in building employee housing in San Nicolas, work with the Seaman’s Club in
San Nicholas and general support of the Government of Aruba. Dad and Governor Do Kwartz were very close
friends and remained so in retirement with each visiting the other in their
respective homes in Holland and the USA.
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I am very
proud of my Mom and Dad and my Stepmother.
They have all been very good to me and I guess that I haven’t turned
out too bad because of all their efforts.
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By:
Robert “Bob” Griffin
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RETURN TO LAGO FAMILY
DIRECTORY
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