Obituary of David Griffing (1926-2011)

David F. Griffing, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Miami University in Ohio, passed away on 12 June 2011 after a battle with cancer.

Born 23 February 1926 to American missionary parents in China, he escaped with his family on an American gunboat from the 1927 Nanking Incident. The family settled in California until 1942, when they moved to Dayton, Ohio. After completing high school there, Dave attended one year at the University of Dayton. He served in the U.S. army from 1944-1946, becoming a tank gunner in Patton’s Third Army.

After military service Dave earned BA and MA degrees in physics from Miami University in Ohio, then he taught physics as an instructor at Miami during the 1950-51 academic year. In 1956 he earned the Ph.D. in physics under the mentorship of J. C. Wheatley at the University of Illinois, investigating nuclear alignment of cobalt-58 in paramagnetic Tutton salt crystals down to 0.012 K. In September 1956, he joined the faculty of Miami University, where he taught until retirement in 1990. He conducted NSF-sponsored research on the Auger effect in mesonic atoms, and over the years he supervised master’s thesis research of many students. At a time when the Department needed a specialist in solid state physics, Dave “repotted” himself in 1965 with an assigned research leave at Argonne National Laboratory, where he began a series of studies of metallic single crystals using ultrasonics as probe. This led to collaboration with industry in non-destructive evaluation (NDE), including summer employment and consultancy with Monsanto Mound Laboratory, General Motors Laboratory, and Systems Research Laboratory.

Dave placed high importance on teaching of physics. He collaborated with colleagues George Arfken, Don Kelly, and Joe Priest in authoring the innovative textbook University Physics for the introductory sequence. Dave urged the introduction of a series of topical physics courses serving non-physics majors; a great sports enthusiast, he pioneered “Physics of Sports” and authored for it the textbook The Dynamics of Sports. Among his innovations was encouraging students to make tutorial films focused on their own sports specialty. Dave was a pioneer in hands-on learning. His “Physics of Toys” course, where students actively handled - instead of passively watching the use of - classic demonstration equipment, was a precursor to the active learning environment now ascendant in science education. For several years, Dave taught in a National Science Foundation summer program for high school physics teachers, created to improve science education in the United States. In addition he taught workshops on physics of music for conventions of Barbershop singers.

Dave was a good-humored and compassionate mentor and counselor for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty, so that he became known as the departmental “chaplain”. Dave liked to include undergraduates as co-authors of papers at regional and national meetings, and as an accomplished Barbershop and church choir singer, Dave also led groups of undergraduates in creating and performing Physics Songs.

Surviving Dave are Louise, his beloved wife of nearly 62 years, their son Bruce (Ph.D. Physics, Purdue), daughter Christine (graduate study in hydrology ), their families, and a host of colleagues and friends. We will greatly miss Dave’s great storytelling and sage advice.