Redd Griffin
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Redd F. Griffin (December 3, 1938 - November 20, 2012)[1][2] was a prominent member of the community of Oak Park, Illinois. He served as a member of the Illinois General Assembly from 1980 to 1983, representing the state's 21st legislative district, which included Oak Park and neighboring areas. He was a leading supporter of several local organizations in the Oak Park area, and for many years served as a trustee of Shimer College.
As a child, Griffin lived on the grounds of the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center, then known as the Illinois State Mental Hospital, where his father was superintendent.[3] He commuted from there to Oak Park to study at the Bishop Quarter Junior Military Academy.[3]
Griffin attended high school for two years at the Oak Park and River Forest High School. In 1954, he left high school to attend Shimer College, a small Great Books college then located in Mount Carroll, Illinois, where he enrolled through the school's early entrance program.[3] He attended on a scholarship from the Ford Foundation, which funded the early entrance program during this period.[4]
Griffin left Shimer in 1958 to work in production at WTTW, Chicago's public television station.[5] He returned to Shimer in 1959, graduating with an AB degree in 1960.[1][5]
Griffin subsequently studied at the postgraduate level at Chicago State University, Northwestern University, and Columbia College of Chicago.[1] He served in the Army Security Agency from 1961 to 1964.[5] There he founded "Das Tor," an organization dedicated to improving understanding between Americans and Europeans.[1][5]