Alan R. Griffith ’64 Honored for Service as Chair of Board of Trustees

Board held a dinner in his honor, and he will be recognized at Commencement

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Alan R. Griffith ’64 is stepping down as chair of the College’s Board of Trustees July 1 after serving in the position for nine years. A Trustee since 1994, he will remain a member of the Board. Edward W. Ahart ’69 will succeed Griffith as chair of the Board. The College held a dinner in Griffith’s honor May 20, and he will also be recognized at the 175th Commencement, May 22.

A member of Lafayette’s Class of 1964, Griffith has had a long and distinguished record of service to the College. A member of the Board’s Steering Committee and chair of the Executive Committee, he also is a member of the Committee on Easton. During his years on the Board, he has served on the Committee on Student Life, the Committee on Financial Policy, and the Special Committee on Information Technology.

He was a member of the All-College Committee on Selectivity and the All-College Task Force on Alcohol and Substance Abuse. Before becoming a Trustee, Griffith served as the first chair of the Lafayette Leadership Council. He received Lafayette’s George T. Woodring ’19 Volunteer of the Year Award in 1999 and was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 2001.

Griffith and his wife, Elizabeth F. “Penny” Griffith, were inducted into the Société d’Honneur in 2005. He chaired the New York City Regional portion of the Lafayette Leadership Campaign. In recognition of their generous support of the modernization of Skillman Library, the Special Collections Suite is named in their honor. In 2005-06, he established the Griffith Consistent Giver Match as an incentive to the College’s young alumni to give more consistently.

After graduating from Lafayette with a bachelor of arts degree as a government and law major, he earned a master of business administration degree from Baruch College of the City University of New York.

In 2005, Griffith retired as vice chairman of The Bank of New York and The Bank of New York Corporation, Inc., roles in which he had served since 1994. He served as president of the bank from 1990 to 1994. He also was a director of the bank and the company and a member of the bank’s senior planning committee. Among the many responsibilities he held during adistinguished 41-year career was the formation of a division to provide financing and banking services to the communications, entertainment, and publishing industries. During his last 10 years at the bank, he directed the international banking sector. At the time of his retirement, The Bank of New York endowed a scholarship fund at Lafayette in his name.

Griffith has been a member of the national board of trustees of the ALS Association, dedicated to the fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, for more than 25 years. He is U.S. chairman of the British-North America Committee, an organization of individuals committed to strengthening relations among Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He also is vice chair of the board of governors of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and a member of the board of trustees and executive committee of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.