Bob Griffin
Bobbie Dean Griffin, 82, of Breckenridge, Texas, passed from this life to the presence of Christ on March 2, 2021, surrounded by family and Pastor Andy Rodgers literally praying him into his heavenly home. A CELEBRATION OF LIFE will be Saturday, March 13, 2021, at 1 p.m. at First Baptist Church, Breckenridge, Texas. Officiating to include FBC Breckenridge Pastor Andy Rodgers and Dr. Genoa Goad. A visitation will follow in the FBC Breckenridge Family Life Center. Services have been entrusted to Morehart Mortuary.
Bob, the youngest of seven siblings, was born on April 3, 1938, in Dolores, Colorado, to Fred and Stella Griffin. The family moved from Colorado to the Oklahoma panhandle area of Texas County in 1940, ultimately landing in Hooker, Oklahoma, until his graduation in 1956. Bob was a star football, basketball and baseball player throughout high school, and in the fall of 1956 enrolled as a student/athlete playing football and basketball at Mesa College in Grand Junction, Colorado. After two years, Bob moved back to Hooker, taking classes at Panhandle State University and eventually taking a job with Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company and then Anadarko Production Company in Liberal, Kansas. While in Liberal, Bob met a Texas teacher named Ouita Jefferson, who he married on June 27, 1959.
Bob became known by many throughout the SW Kansas/Oklahoma panhandle for his many community involvements. After receiving his Eagle Scout as a teenager, Bob became the Scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 180 of Liberal, Kansas, for nearly 20 years, leading hundreds of young men on expeditions through Kansas to Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. For over 25 years Bob officiated hundreds of high school football and basketball games throughout the region and served with the umpire crew for the Liberal Bee-Jays. In 1972, after seeing a need for family entertainment in Liberal, Bob contracted with Fairway Enterprises and built and opened GRIF GOLF Miniature Golf Course. Upon moving from Kansas to Texas in 1978, Bob and the Griffin family donated GRIF GOLF to Liberal’s Kids, Inc., which continues to operate GRIF GOLF to this day in Bluebonnet Park.
In June 1978, Bob accepted a position with Arapaho Petroleum in Breckenridge, Texas, moving Ouita and their three sons to their present home on Hubbard Creek Lake, just outside of Breckenridge. For the next six years, Bob worked for several energy companies, from Clyde Petroleum to Petco, before he and Ouita launched their own oil and gas operating company of Griffin Resources, LLC in 1984. GR is still in operation today employing the three sons, as well as daughter-in-law Mary.
For the next three decades Bob and Ouita built their business, raised their sons, enjoyed their Branson time-share and cruised the world. In August of 2015 after 56 years of marriage, Bob suddenly and unexpectedly lost Ouita. One year later, his home of 38 years on Hubbard Creek was completely destroyed by fire. For the next two years, Bob rebuilt his home and his life, ultimately marrying Sue Corley on August 19, 2017. For the next three-plus years, Bob and Sue traveled, loved and laughed his final years to their fullest.
Bob accepted Christ as his Savior while a young boy and served a faithful Christian life with his family at churches he attended, including First Baptist Church Liberal, Kansas, and FBC Breckenridge, where Bob was a deacon. Bob is perhaps best known for his service as “official greeter” for 40 years as hundreds remember Bob as the first person they met when first visiting FBC Breck.
Bob is survived by his wife of 3½ years, Sue, of Breckenridge; his three sons including, Jeff Griffin and wife, Mary, of Breckenridge, Jon Griffin and wife, Susie, of Irving, Texas, and Patrick Griffin and wife, Jan, of Hennessey, Oklahoma; eight loving grandchildren, Trevor, Tyler, Landre, Tatum, Sawyer, Callyn, Cameron and Zach as well as Zach’s wife Sarah who gave Bob his one great-grandchild, Emilia Jane.
Special thanks to next door neighbor Jim Kropelnicki, Bob and Sue’s Cornerstone SS class, Blanca and all the home health nurses with Kindred Home Health, and the countless physicians and nurses.
In celebration of Bob, memorials can be made to the FBC Breckenridge Building Fund, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the American Cancer Society and the West Texas Rehab.
Proverbs 3:5-6
