Joseph Parkwood Griffith, Sr.

May 15, 1929 — November 7, 2018

Joseph Parkwood Griffith, Sr., K.M., 89, widowed husband of the former Elizabeth Therese Smith Griffith, entered into eternal rest on Wednesday, November 7, 2018. The youngest son of George Louis Griffith and Alice Schrage Griffith, he was born in Charleston, S.C., on May 15, 1929. His predeceased siblings were Grace G. Dennis, George L. Griffith, Jr. and Lavenia G. Pinson.

Known as “Big Joe” or “Poppa Joe” to his family and friends, he attended Bishop England High School and graduated in 1946. He played as a lineman on the first BEHS football team coached by Gerald McMahon. He enrolled in St. Bernard College, a Benedictine seminary in Cullman, Alabama, with the intent of becoming a Catholic priest, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Thomastic Philosophy. After determining that the priesthood was not his calling, he joined the United States Army in 1955, serving on the G-2 Army Intelligence staff at the Pentagon before being assigned to serve in Columbia, South Carolina.

He first met the love of his life, “Bette” Griffith, when they worked as counselors at Camp St. Mary’s. When he finally mustered up the courage to ask her for a date, she agreed, and he was smitten. Bette and Joe were married on September 10, 1955, and enjoyed 49 blissful years of marriage together, and raised five children. Joe and Bette loved to travel and entertain, and their Christmas Parade and Easter parties at their Edward Rutledge house on Broad Street were legendary fun.

After the Army, Joe’s business career started at C & S Bank in Columbia, S.C. as a mortgage loan officer. In less than a year, he returned to Charleston to work in the real estate industry. In 1957, Joe started his own company, Joe Griffith, Inc., a real estate development, management and brokerage firm, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, and is now run by his sons Louis and Stephen.

In about 1958, Joe met Mike Knapp, who had just retired from the Navy, and they formed a development firm, Griffith-Knapp Properties, to develop properties in the Charleston area. They made a dynamic duo, with Joe as the visionary smoking his cherry tobacco-filled pipe, and Mike as the numbers cruncher smoking his cigar.

He developed a wide variety of projects including hotels, apartments, townhouses, shopping centers, drug stores, storage facilities, residential subdivisions, country clubs and golf courses, including the Lodge Alley Inn, Charleston National Country Club, Snee Farm Country Club, Ocean Point at Wild Dunes, Olde Park Subdivision, Shadowmoss Country Club, Parish Place Subdivision, Queensborough Subdivision, and the Mt. Pleasant Towne Centre, to name a few.

Joe also ventured beyond the real estate industry, and was an owner and the Chairman of the Board of Pre-Stress Concrete Company, Inc., South Atlantic Dredge Company, First Trident Savings and Loan, and the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition. He was also Chairman of the advisory Board of Directors for NBSC Bank.

Joe always firmly believed in giving back to the community, and his civic service record is a model for us all. He served on the Board of Directors of many civic organizations, including the Ronald McDonald House, the Charleston Symphony, the Charleston Community Concert Association, the Harbour Club, Spoleto USA, Educational Television Endowment of South Carolina, and the Interfaith Crisis Ministry. He served as Chairman of the Catholic Charities of Charleston, President of the Exchange Club of Charleston and the Coastal Carolina Fair, President of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments, Chairman of the South Carolina Business and Industry Political Education Committee, and Vice Chairman of the South Carolina State Ports Authority. Joe served as a Commissioner on the Patriots Point Development Authority, and was awarded the Commission of Admiral in the South Carolina Navy. He served as Chairman of the Health Sciences Foundation of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), was a member of MUSC’s Society of 1984, received the MUSC Presidential Merit Award, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Bette Smith Griffith Pavilion at the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center in recognition of his loving wife who succumbed to breast cancer in 2004. He was proud to have Bette’s portrait hang in the pavilion in her memory. Joe also helped establish Charleston’s first Miracle League baseball park for disabled children, and Joe Griffith Miracle Field is named in his honor.

Joe was awarded the Order of the Palmetto by former South Carolina Governor Richard Riley, the Malcolm D. Haven Award for Selfless Community Giving by the Charleston Community Foundation, and the Catholicity Award from the South Carolina State Council of the Knights of Columbus. In further recognition of his devoted service to the Catholic Church, Joe had the honor of receiving three papal installations: Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Knight of the Order of Saint Gregory, and Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He was the Chairman of the Committee to bring Pope John Paul II to the University of South Carolina in 1987 for an ecumenical conference, and meeting the Pope was one of the highlights of his life.

Joe became a member of the Hibernian Society of Charleston in 1972, and immediately became devoted to the organization. In 1976, he helped reinstitute the Hibernian Society Foundation as a Founding Member, and was the Foundation’s President from 1988-1990. He served on the Managing Committee in the late seventies and early eighties, and became Chairman of the Managing Committee in 1982-1984. He served as 60th President of the Hibernian Society from 1986-1988.

Despite his many impressive accomplishments over the years, Joe always remained a humble, unassuming and pious gentleman. He always kept an original sign of Coming Street on his desk to remind him of the poor section of Charleston where he was raised. A devoted Catholic, he attended Mass almost every day, and always said his faith was a great source of strength and serenity for him. He was always a voracious reader, and read about a book a week.

His surviving children are Joseph Parkwood Griffith, Jr. (Melanie) of the Isle of Palms, Helena Griffith Bastian of Mt. Pleasant, Louis Eugene Griffith (Kathy) of Mt. Pleasant, Stephen Augustus Griffith (Stacey) of Mt. Pleasant, and Elizabeth Griffith Loy (Pete) of Mt. Pleasant, and 15 grand-children Joseph Parkwood Griffith III (fiancé Madison), John Phillip Griffith, Thomas Christian Griffith, Grace Elizabeth Griffith, Bernard Henrics Bastian IV (Cacky), Mark Joseph Bastian, Elizabeth Bastian McDonald (Patrick), Stephen Augustus Griffith, Jr., Lewis Parkwood Griffith, Tolly Alice Griffith, Kathleen Smith Griffith, Louis Eugene Griffith, Jr., Julian Dierks Griffith, Peter Michael Loy (fiancé Alex), and Joseph Griffith Loy (Hailey), and 2 great-grand-children, Elizabeth Cahill Bastian and Charlotte Rose Bastian.

The family wants to thank Joe’s recent caregivers, including Cathy Moultrie, Anita Watson, Dominique Wilder of Brightstar, and Amber Sharkey and Elizabeth Simons of Roper St. Francis Hospice Care, for their kindness and compassion during the difficult past few weeks.

Visitation will be held on Sunday, November 11, 2018, from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM, at James A. McAlister Funeral Home, 1620 Savannah Highway, with a rosary at 4:00 PM. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00 AM, Monday, November 12, 2018, at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, 120 Broad Street, Charleston, S.C. The Rite of Committal will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery. A reception to celebrate his life will be held at the Hibernian Society Hall Monday afternoon between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Hibernian Society of Charleston Foundation, 105 Meeting Street, Charleston, S.C. 29401, for college scholarships for students attending the Citadel, College of Charleston, Trident Technical College, and the American College of the Building Arts, or donations to the Bishop England- Bette Griffith Theology Award.

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