IN    LOVING    MEMORY

Henry Dale Griffith, 68, son of Henry B. and Juanita "Geraldine" Griffith, was born Aug. 6, 1940, in Springfield, Mo. He died Sunday, May 3, 2009, in his home at West Fork.

Henry grew up on a small farm near Little Rock and graduated from Little Rock Central High School in the memorable year of 1958. He was an award-winning reporter for The Tiger, the Central High School newspaper during the Little Rock Nine integration crisis.

He studied literature and philosophy at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and attended the MFA Creative Writing Workshop in poetry at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City. He authored three poetry books, "And", "Wounds in the Left Eye" and "A Beast in View", and his poetry appeared in numerous literary magazines. He was a poet who did various jobs to earn a living, jobs that included bookstore management, bar tending, film and video production and tourist trolley driving.

During the 1970s he lived in a successful urban commune in New Orleans. Later he moved to Eureka Springs, where he was the founder and director of the Tao Academy of Healing and Martial Arts. From 1985 until his death, he and his wife, Carolyn, lived on their farm in West Fork.

Henry was a founding member of the Rapid Response Writers Group. He served on the board of ACLU of Northwest Arkansas. He was coordinator for the West Fork Environmental Protection Association and for the Organizing Committee of the West Fork Recycling Center. He was a member of Senior Democrats and frequently expressed his liberal views through letters to the local newspapers.

Henry loved and took care of animals. He suspected he was set down here on this earth to open doors for them and learned long ago you had to be nice to your animals or they would raise your rent. Henry had a sense of humor.

He is survived by his wife, Carolyn; his brother, Reynolds Griffith and wife Alice of Denton, Texas; and numerous loving relatives and friends. Henry was cremated by Beard's Funeral Chapel and Crematory of Fayetteville, and a Celebration of Life will be announced at a later date.

Groups that were special to Henry include the Fayetteville Humane Society, Fayetteville and West Fork libraries, OMNI and environmental organizations.

Recently someone told him, "Henry, you're a treasure."

And he said, "Well, that explains why they keep trying to bury me in the backyard."

That's where he is now.

 

 

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