The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2016

72 JULY-AUGUST 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Getting Involved in the Community BY GEORGE G . B . GR I F F I N O n retirement, we decided to move to rural Pennsylvania. As we settled in, I began going to community meetings to meet our new neighbors. At one of those meetings I learned that there was a movement to form an organization to ensure that local concerns were brought to the attention of authorities in our two-state, four- county area. (At the same time, I checked out a nearby foreign affairs study group. But, conclud- ing that it was too simplistic and politically moti- vated, I didn’t join.) The local group grew into a strong commu- nity organization, influencing county and state government actions. When I was elected its vice president, the president asked me to apply for membership on the board of a nearby Base Closure and Realignment Commission-manda ted parastatal, which our members considered too secretive and unsuccessful in redeveloping an important former U.S. Army base. Soon after joining that board, I was elected chairman; three years later, I won a second four-year term. By the end of my ten- ure, I had successfully negotiated the sale of the entire 600-acre property, and got the developer to agree to join in paying $6 mil- lion to build a new community center, which I helped design. I later served as president of the community center, and convinced the board to donate a mil- lion dollars to the local primary school, keeping it open as an inducement to potential job seekers at the former Army base. I also became a trustee of an African wildlife conservation nonprofit organization, and was soon its primary fundraiser in the United States. There is more than enough to keep one busy in retirement! George G. B. Griffin entered the Foreign Service in 1959 and served in Kathmandu and Kabul as acting deputy chief of mission; as commercial counselor in Lagos and Seoul; as DCM in Nairobi; as consul gen- eral in Milan; and, briefly, as a senior inspector in Tel Aviv, Cairo, Jerusalem and Taipei, among many other assignments, before retiring in 1999. Theology and the FS BY FR . THEODORE L EWI S L ife after the Foreign Service may be daunting to contem- plate, at least for those not content with golf and cruises. The skills we develop in our careers, the disciplines we acquire, arise outside the usual American context. We may wonder how they can be relevant in that context. Further, in our assignments we deal with vital matters both national and international. Post- retirement, such activities as community service, consulting or teaching may be available to us. But can they give us anything like the same sense of purpose? I do not have final answers to these questions. But I can tell how in my own case they were answered positively. My retirement came about abruptly; I had little chance for advance planning. But I had been to seminary along the way, and I had already conceived an idea for a book. This was to discern a particular theme in biblical redemp- tion history, the story running from Moses and the Exodus through the death and resurrection of Jesus (“power lies ultimately in accep- tance of our powerlessness”). It would then trace application of this theme to subsequent history—history of the world, as well as the church. And my toolkit for the discern- ment and the tracing would be my Foreign Service disciplines. My retirement gave me time to work on the book. But I lacked the supervision as well as access to needed research materi- als. To find them I went to England and took up residence in an Oxford theological college. One of the tutors there was pre-emi- nently qualified to supervise me; subsequently, he became one of the world’s best known theologians. But I lacked academic As chairman of the PenMar Development Corp., George Griffin (right) receives a plaque from Fire Chief Dale Fishack in thanks for the fire truck the company donated to the Smithsburgh, Maryland, Fire Department. COURTESYOFGEORGEG.B.GRIFFIN