John Herrmann Griffith, the son of Leon Griffith and Amelia Hermann, was born on January 25, 1924, and grew up in Vicksburg, Michigan. He graduated as valedictorian from Vicksburg High School and received a scholarship to the University of Michigan, where he matriculated in 1942. Griffith studied history at the university until being drafted by the army in 1944, and attended the United States Army Surgical Technician School at Lawson General Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. During the war, he first served as an operating room technician with the 86th Evacuation Hospital at Camp Bowie, Texas; he joined the 134th Evacuation Hospital in late 1944 and was deployed overseas in January 1945. After serving in France and Germany, he returned to the University of Michigan, where he earned a master's degree in 1947 and a doctoral degree in 1955. During his doctoral studies, he spent a year in Bologna, Italy, as a Rotary Fellow. Griffith remained in Ann Arbor for the rest of his life, where he worked at the William L. Clements Library, the Ann Arbor Commission on Professional and Hospital Activities, and the University of Michigan. On November 22, 1957, he married Evelyn Greaves; they had two children: Paul William (b. 1958) and Andrew Richard (b. 1960). John H. Griffith died in Ann Arbor on March 16, 2003.
From the guide to the John H. Griffith collection, Griffith, John H. collection, 1942-1972, 1942-1945, 1951-1952, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
