Al or "Nick" as he is known to close friends and family was born to Clarence C. Griffin and Agnes K. Griffin Theis in the upstairs bedroom of his
grandfather and grandmother's house in Troy, Kansas on May 24, 1933. His
family lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the time of his unexpected early
birth and were just visiting his mother's family in Troy. He soon moved to
Albuquerque. His arrival raised the population of Albuquerque to 30,001
souls. Four brothers, Robert, Clarence, Pat and Jim and three sisters,
Katherine, Mary Agnes, and Teresa comprise Al's siblings.
He attended St. Mary
Elementary and High School and Albuquerque High School. He worked part time at the
Market Basket grocery store and Chaplin Bowling Alley while attending
school. He worked one year for Joe Pacheco who owned the Zia Gardens Market
on North 2nd Street just past Osuna. When the United States became embroiled
in the Korean "conflict" he followed his brother into the US military. But
unlike his brother's choice of the US Army he chose the US Air Force,
enlisting on June 1, 1951. His first
enlistment was highlighted by a tour of duty in Thule, Greenland.
He reenlisted after four
years and returned to Albuquerque and Kirtland AFB. He remained in the
Albuquerque area as a Military Personnel Specialist at Kirtland until 1964
when he applied for and received a special assignment to Zweibrucken,
Germany. He wound up his European tour by moving to Frankfurt, Germany. He
left Germany and returned to Kirtland AFB in December 1967. After 2 years
back at Kirtland, he applied for and was accepted for assignment at the USAF
Recruiting Office in Albuquerque as the Operations Superintendent of
recruiting efforts in West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. He retired as a
Chief Master Sergeant on July 1, 1973.
He worked as a real
estate agent for Brazie Realty and attended TVI's electronics course until
August 1974. He was hired as a loan officer with the Kirtland AFB Federal
Credit Union where he worked until a job he had previously applied for became available and
he was selected for the Chief,
Non-Appropriated Fund Personnel Section at Kirtland AFB. He provided
personnel services such as staffing, data management and employee relations.
He moved from there to the Employee Relations Section of the Central
Civilian Personnel Office where he spent five years as an Employee-Management Relations
Specialist. In 1985 he was appointed as the Chief, Data Management Section
of the Civilian Personnel Office. His last 11 years at Kirtland AFB were spent
in that position. He retired from civil service as a GS-12 on October 1,
1996.
Not content to be
retired, he spent the time immediately following retirement attending the
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. On October 15, 1996 he went to
work for PC Support, Inc. a computer technology company as a software
instructor. He worked with such companies as Citibank, Public Service
Company of New Mexico (PNM), the Department of Energy, and Sandia National
Labs at Kirtland AFB. He submitted a bid for the PNM contract with his own
company "Mr. Computer Tutor" in January 1999. He was awarded the contract to
teach Web Page Design using HTML as well as three levels of Microsoft
FrontPage and Microsoft Image Composer.
He married Annabell
Youker (now deceased) of State Center, Iowa in June 1954. They had four children , Elizabeth Anne,
employed in Civil Service as a
personnel specialist, Nicholas John who works for a landscaping firm, Cecilia Jeanne, who works for the US Postal Service and
William Anthony, who is married to Deborah and is the Sales Manager for
Franks Supply, A commercial equipment rental company in Albuquerque.
Al married Kay
Chitwood in November 1987 and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to work as an
Employee-Managements Relations Specialist at Nellis AFB. After seven months
he returned to Kirtland AFB.
He has three
step-children, Lorie who is a school teacher just returned to Albuquerque
after a 9 year stay in Lander, Wyoming; Teri who is a homemaker living in
Farmington, New Mexico; and Sheri who is a property manager for Alvarado Properties in Albuquerque.
Al has eight
grandchildren, Michael Oakes, Christopher Reisinger, Brandon Jones, Clayton
Underwood, Christine Benally, Cameron Otero, Caulin Otero and Garrett Harris.
He has one great-grandchild, Tyler Jones.
Al's hobbies are as
varied as his work history. He began bowling at age 14 and won many
tournaments throughout New Mexico and Texas. His first league series score
was 686 (a 228 average). He bowled throughout his military career winning
his command's tournament in 1957 and leading the Air Research and
Development Command team to a second place finish in the Air Force
Tournament. He sang tenor in his church's choir and the Albuquerque Civic
Chorus. He sang for seven years under John Clark's leadership with the
Albuquerque Symphony Chorus (later the New Mexico Symphony chorus). He plays the organ
and guitar occasionally to relax alone for awhile.
He has painted portraits in charcoal, pastel and oil
pastel. Most of his creations were devoted to portraits of Native Americans.
His most loved hobby is ballooning. He got his first ride in Midnight Angel
with pilot Sam Baxter at the Taos Mountain Balloon Rally in 1987 and has
been hooked since. He served as Bob Woodall's crew chief until 1998 when he
realized he couldn't climb trees to help retrieve the balloon anymore. So he
turned it over to a younger person. Al also enjoys walking, going four
miles almost every day so, as he puts it: "I don't vegetate". He also wants
to learn new things, especially new computer programs to keep his mind
active. His motto is "Smiling keeps you young"!
Al currently
attends St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic church.
Al can be contacted on the Internet at
algriffin@msn.com.
Some of Al's work
