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Capt. William S. Griswold, USCG (Ret.), Flotilla Commander, Flotilla 43, District 7, Lake County, Florida |
A well respected member of the Auxiliary once said that if you want something done right, give the job to a busy person. Well, since his retirement from Coast Guard active duty in 1993, Bill Griswold sure fits that bill.
When Griz - as he is affably known by his many friends - and his wife Sam relocated to their current home in central Florida, he immediately became active in his local flotilla and division. He was soon appointed as the State Liaison Officer for his district. Griz also joined the National Public Education Staff heading up their public awareness efforts and becoming a major member of their public education workshop team. Not your normal level of activity for a newly retired Coast Guard officer!
But of course, Griz didn’t become a Coast Guard officer in the normal way either. He began his military career as an Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, and transferred over to the Coast Guard after the war, earning his red suspenders as a Coast Guard rescue pilot in Alaska. When his flying days were over, Bill served in a number of boating safety related billets, culminating his career by spending six years as our longest serving Chief Director of Auxiliary.
During his 6 years as our Chief Director, Bill made many friends throughout the international boating safety fraternity and upon retirement was asked to serve in various capacities within the National Safe Boating Council (NSBC) www.safeboatingcouncil.org. His invaluable service to the NSBC eventually led to his selection as Chairman of the National Safe Boating Council from 2002–2004.
Because of his wide ranging knowledge of the Auxiliary as well as his involvement in the NSBC, in 1998 then National Commodore Ev Tucker appointed Bill to be one of our three Auxiliary representatives to the United Safe Boating Institute (USBI) www.usbi.org. He has been President of USBI since 2006.
In 2008, he was inducted into the National Safe Boating Council’s Hall of Fame, and has received other prestigious awards from the Coast Guard, U. S. Power Squadrons, and the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators for his many years promoting America’s recreational boating safety.
So is Griz now resting on his well earned laurels? Not a chance! In addition to his NSBC and USBI related activities, he’s now holds two Branch Chief positions in the National Department of Boating, he’s still the D7 State Liaison Officer, is the Information Services officer for his flotilla and last, but certainly not least, he’s heading into his second year in the hardest and most important job in the Auxiliary - Flotilla Commander.
Through his direction and leadership his flotilla embarked on a county-wide project with a goal of reducing drowning fatalities, especially young children. He applied for and was awarded a $1,000.00 grant that was used to start a child’s life jacket loaner program. The flotilla purchased the life jackets, added identification tags and distributed them to marina throughout the county. Griz said, “We may never know how many children’s lives may be saved, but for certain, we are truly trying our best to get that number to zero.”
What’s next on the horizon? Undoubtedly more efforts in his longstanding goal of improving boating safety. Griz is truly an individual we can be proud to call our shipmate!
~GJA 11/21/10