George Edison Griffen, past lieutenant governor of the Long Island South Central Division of Kiwanis International (1972-73) and a past president of the Kiwanis Club of the Massapequas (1962) died May 8 in Fort Myers, Florida, where he retired several years ago. Griffen was 83 and would have been 84 July 30.

During his 65 year record as a community leader that included a short time as a member of the Merrick Kiwanis Club, Griffen made a habit of encouraging Kiwanians to get involved with important issues such as the new stringent Rockefeller drug laws, a project that all New York District Kiwanis Clubs eventually became involved in. During the Massapequa Club's sponsored Championship Rodeos in 1968 and 1969, Griffen arranged to have the Nassau County Police Department's anti-drug exhibits and petition booths on the grounds, which resulted in the collection of thousands of signatures demanding stronger penalties for drug pushers and offenders.

In the fall of 1973, while serving as the lieutenant governor of the LISC Division, Griffen was instrumental in organizing several other Long Island Kiwanis Divisions to sponsor the opening night of a Championship Rodeo held at the brand new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, home of the NHL New York Islanders. The rodeo featured the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and the Kiwanians received 50 percent of all ticket sales to benefit Long Island Kiwanis Club's community projects and programs.

In 1962, while president of the Massapequa Club, he encouraged members to sponsor a Strawberry Festival on the grounds of Birch Lane School. The huge event was very successful, complete with four beautiful girls competing for Strawberry Queen. Griffen was the man behind the Massapequa Club's building of the Kiwanis Fishing Bridge adjacent to Clark Blvd. in the Massapequa Preserve, where hundreds of youngsters regularly test their luck in the creek stocked with trout. Griffen's idea was to keep the children from fishing off the street bridge, which was dangerous.

While retired and living in Florida, Griffen practically single-handedly started a Kiwanis Club in Riverdale. Terry Sweeney and Ed Daly, former members of the Massapequa club heard about the new club. Living close by, the two former New York Kiwanians joined the Kiwanis Club of Riverdale, Florida.

During WWII, Griffen was a member of the Second Marine Battalion Combat Engineers and was one of the first GI's to walk through Nagasaki after the Atomic Bomb was dropped. He served throughout the South Pacific until his discharge in 1945. After settling in Massapequa, Griffen built and operated the Gulf Triangle Service Station at Broadway and Hicksville Road. The station was the first post-war station built in Massapequa and featured several gas pumps on a round island.

Visitation was at the Claude R. Boyd-Spencer Funeral Home in Babylon. Burial was at Calverton National Cemetery, Calverton, NY.