Very sad news ... Terry L. Griffith, Oklahoma City historian and writer of three basic books on Oklahoma City's history, died on Christmas Day 2014.
I never met Terry but his three Arcadia Publishing books have been a constantly used and reliable source of information about our city's history. His obituary was published this morning in the Oklahoman:
Nov 8, 1961 - Dec 25, 2014 OKLAHOMA CITY Terry L Griffith, 53, of Oklahoma City, died Dec. 25, 2014, after a valiant fight with cancer. He was born Nov. 8, 1961, in Oklahoma City, a city he loved and had a passion for. He became a historian on his beloved city, with three published books on the subject. He worked as a barista for Starbucks, where his humor, charm, smiles and laughter will be missed. He is survived by his best friend, Stephen Spottedhorse; cousin, Johnny Hindman; and many loving friends. He was predeceased by his parents, Lee and Magnolia Griffith. Terry is gone from this life but never from our hearts. Memorial service will be held at a later date.The three books mentioned in the above obituary are:
(1) Oklahoma City: Land Run to Statehood (Arcadia Publishing 1999).
(2) Oklahoma City: Statehood to 1930 (Arcadia Publishing 2000).
(3) Oklahoma City: 1930 to the Millennium (Arcadia Publishing 2000).
I reviewed these books in a much earlier post and no need exists to do so again.
God speed, Terry Griffith. You are missed, and you are thanked for your contributions to our city's history.
I wish I had known he was an author, just to read his books before he passed away. I will be reading them now and remembering his smile and heart.
ReplyDeleteThanks, PBE. In many ways, his books were the best published sources available when Oklahoma City history got its hooks into me. They are a great resource and I am so glad to have them. I do very much wish that I had met Terry.
ReplyDeleteI spent about an hour in Terry's home a few years back while he was still living in Yukon. I had called him trying to locate a copy of one of his books and he invited me to come to his house and pickup the book, We sat and visited and shared our stories of Oklahoma City history, and to say he was an interesting person would be and understatement. When I tried to locate him again after several months he had moved and I was never abled to find him until I found this post.
ReplyDeleteGood site.
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