Dick Griffin, 1938 - 2021
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our dear colleague and friend Dick Griffin.
Dick was a commercial lines insurance broker with more than 50 years of experience, best known in the herbal industry as the owner of Grifcon Enterprises, Inc. and later Griffin Insurance Services (GIS), and also as a consultant for and collaborator with longtime AHPA member and supporter RT Specialty.
In 1996, Dick formed an exclusive agreement with AHPA to provide products liability insurance to the U.S. dietary supplement and natural products industry, and soon thereafter extended the program to work with several other organizations that represent these trades.
“Dick’s concept from the outset was that collaboration between the insurance industry and the businesses it serves will produce the greatest benefit for all,” commented AHPA president Michael McGuffin. “Aside from taking care of his customers by making affordable coverage broadly available, the program he created 25 years ago has returned hundreds of thousands of dollars to the trade groups with whom he worked.”
Always the innovator, Dick led efforts over a decade ago to provide insurance coverage for California Proposition 65 claims, and he was among the first to take seriously the insurance needs of the cannabis and hemp businesses that have emerged in the last several years.
In 2015, the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) awarded Dick its annual “AHPA Herbal Hero Award” in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the dietary supplement and natural products industry. He was acknowledged at that time for "the tremendous benefits that his programs have generated for the dietary supplement industry." In 2018, the American Botanical Council (ABC) named Dick as the recipient of its “ABC Champion Award” for 2017 for his work in consistently serving ABC and other organizations in the natural products community.
His professional accomplishments and acknowledgements were many, but for those of us who knew him, it was Dick’s generosity that will be most remembered.
A man of the western plains, Dick was born and raised in Rawlins, WY as the youngest of five children. Shortly after graduating from the University of Wyoming, he and his young family moved to the Pacific Northwest, but the best evidence of his lifelong love for Wyoming can be found in his autobiographical short story, My Summer Vacation, which Dick published in 2011 to tell the tale of “nine wild and wonderful days on a camping trip [that] started in Rawlins, Wyoming and covered more than 400 miles all the way to Yellowstone National Park and back home to Rawlins.”
Dick is survived by his wife Rose Marie (Kalan) Griffin; daughters Rene (Kim) and Nicole; sons-in-law Henry Kim and Brian Yeh; and grandsons Harrison Kim, Kennedy Kim, Nate Griffin-Yeh and Anthony Griffin-Yeh.
A memorial/celebration of life service is on hold at the present time due to Covid restrictions.
In lieu of flowers, the Griffin family requests donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Notification to be sent to Rose Marie Griffin, 1332 Rose Bouquet Dr, Lincoln, CA 95648.