Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005 | 8:29 a.m.
Born: Nov. 8, 1905, at Jamestown, N.Y.
Education: Graduate of the Cleveland School of Art.
His secret to longevity: Remaining physically and mentally active, not mixing starches with proteins at meals, not eating anything after 4 p.m.
Survivors: A sister, Barbara Evans of Mayville, N.Y. He was preceded in death by his wife, Gladys Griffith.
Services: Per Griffith's request, there will be no services.
When an 85-year-old Don Griffith looked across the swimming lanes at the 1991 National Senior Olympics and saw 1920 Olympic medalist Gus Langer, 87, warming up, he knew he was in trouble.
"He used to swim against Buster Crabbe," Langer told the Sun at the time. "With Langer in there, second was as high as I could get."
In the meet, Griffith won four silver medals and a bronze in swimming and a bronze medal in tennis doubles to pace a 27-member Las Vegas squad that won a combined 11 medals.
Donald Irving Griffith, an artist who sculpted the bronze bust of Jim Cashman displayed at the Cashman Field complex, died Friday at Odyssey Hospice in Las Vegas. He was three days beyond his 100th birthday.
As a contract engineer, Griffith helped design power plants for Nevada Power Co. in the 1950s.
"My uncle's willingness to tackle any challenge, whether it was athletic or intellectual, was a hallmark of his life," said Ed Evans, of Pomona, N.Y., a New York City suburb. "At age 90, he got his first computer and used it to keep digital photo records of his artwork."
In addition to the Cashman bust, Griffith was known for a large mural he painted in Denver in the 1930s and for sculptures and paintings that today are displayed in homes in Denver and Las Vegas. He painted desert landscapes in both water colors and oil.
Griffith, a descendant of Revolutionary War veteran Jeremiah Griffith, competed in several senior games into his early 90s, but never again equaled his multi-medal performance of 1991.
He continued playing tennis until he was 92. And he swam recreationally until three weeks before his death, when he completed a quarter-mile swim in a local pool, Evans said.
Griffith was a longtime member of the Las Vegas Racquet Club, having taken up tennis at age 65. He underwent hip and knee replacement surgery and stopped playing tennis eight years ago, his family said.
For 49 years Griffith drove the same car, a 1955 Oldsmobile, which he took across country several times, registering hundreds of thousand of miles and going through several engines. He quit driving last May, his family said.
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Ed Koch can be reached at (702) 259-4090 or at [email protected].
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