A different route
County judge sets high priority on solving problems, serving residents
When he was 16 years old, Independence County Judge Robert Griffin learned a life lesson that he has carried with him since that day.
He said he went swimming in a lake with some friends, and when he got halfway across a particular cove, he was completely exhausted. For that brief moment, he said, he felt the panic that he thought someone who drowns must feel.
Griffin said he stamped down the panic and eased back to shore, but he learned a lifelong lesson: “It’s OK to swim in deep water, but don’t get yourself in over your head.”
He has carried that philosophy with him through his years as a high school and college student, he said, and in his varied career, which led him to farming, to taking over the Federal grain facility from his father, then to public service, which has culminated in Griffin serving as Independence County judge.
When Griffin graduated from Newark High School in 1972, he went to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for a semester, but ended up moving back and, instead, attended what was then Arkansas College, now Lyon College, in Batesville. In his junior year, he quit school after his first trimester to marry Gayla, and the couple have been married for 46 years.
“She is an angel. Anyone who knows me knows how she has to put up with me and knows she has got to be a saint,” Griffin said, with a laugh.
Griffin then started a farm, but he learned that farming is dependent upon much more than one’s know-how, with factors such as prices, pests, weather and other variables, he said. He sold his part of his equipment to his brother Frankie. At the
time, their father wanted to retire and sell his share of the Federal grain facility, and Griffin decided to buy him out.
Griffin said there were some trials with various crops, such as rice, corn and wheat.
“But we stayed solvent,” he said. “We made a profit pretty much every year, and we outlasted the big boys like Bunge at Newport, etc.”
He eventually sold the grain business and said he could have retired then, but because he was in his mid-50s, he still needed something to do.
“I’ve always sought the opportunity to go into public service when there’s a problem,” he said, explaining that he ran for a seat on the Newark School Board in the 1980s when the district was facing some financial issues.
Griffin rotated off the board for five years, but when the district was facing hardship once again, he felt compelled to run for another term on the board.
“I’m attracted to a problem to solve,” he said, and that is what drew him to run for Independence County judge, the county’s top office.
“I knew there were some things in the county that needed fixing,” he said. “I asked the county to give me an opportunity, and they did.”
Griffin said he carried his management philosophy over to the county.
“You have not seen any fee increases or tax increases since I’ve been here,” he said. “You make do with what the public gives you.”
Griffin said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, the jail went on lockdown for four days, so the county had no community-service workers to pick up garbage. He said he then began to look at side-arm garbage trucks and residential carts instead of cans, and no additional personnel had to be hired.
“There is a constant movement in government, and one thing you can’t perceive happening — COVID-19 — can create a whole different level of things that have to be addressed,” he said, “but that goes back to my entire life of being in business — you adapt.”
Griffin said he starts his morning taking a different route to work, checking on a new bridge here or a road there that needs some work. He fields countless calls and makes his cellphone number available to everyone — residents, business owners, justices of the peace and so forth.
Griffin said he has spent his tenure building relationships with people from all walks of life. Last month, he met with Don Graves, U.S. Department of Community deputy secretary, but on any given day, Griffin could be talking with engineers, local farmers, residents wanting a stop sign on their road, representatives and senators at the state or national level.
“Twenty-nine million dollars runs through this county, and my hand signature — I won’t use a stamp — will be on everything,” Griffin said.
About five or six years ago, Griffin went to the doctor for a routine checkup that he said was “so inconclusive with slightly elevated PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels.” He followed up with a biopsy that revealed he had prostate cancer that had spread into his lymph nodes.
When he began to consider whether he wanted to run for another four-year term as county judge, Griffin said one of his cancer-treatment drugs is known to be a fatigue inducer, and “If I can’t give 100 percent, I’m not willing to serve,” he said. “The people pay me to do a job, at least to the best of my ability.”
So with a year and a half still left on this term, he recently announced he would not run for re-election.
But he said he wants to make sure he leaves the county in the best possible shape, from roads to graders to trash, and everything else he can think of.
According to friend Bill Walmsley, Griffin has been as effective a county judge as any holder of that office that Walmsley has seen in his 60-plus years as a resident of Independence County.
“I believe he has worked extremely hard to be knowledgeable of all facets of county government,” Walmsley said. “He was invaluable in the transformation of our county library from a 1950s 4,500-squarefoot facility with four employees to a 23,000-square-foot 21st-century facility with 11 employees. That task took three years and was far more complicated than most people would realize. It would not have occurred without his unqualified support and assistance.”
Walmsley also said Griffin has done more to improve county roads than any other county judge he’s known.
“We have all benefited from his time in this office,” Walmsley said.
In addition to his work as county judge, Griffin gave much of his time to coach sports for two decades.
Around 1977, Griffin said, his friend who coached high school basketball mentioned the need for volunteers to help with the elementary program. So Griffin, who’d had a brief career playing basketball at the college level, stepped up, continuing to coach for about 20 years until his daughter began seventh grade.
He also coached summer softball up to junior high ages and later assisted a local coach with the high school fast-pitch softball team for a number of years, noting that the team was in the second round of the state tournament while Griffin was running for county judge.
Griffin’s nephew Rodney Griffin recalled playing intramural basketball for his uncle in the sixth grade. Rodney said he and a friend had ridden their bikes to his grandmother’s house, and they were basically using the sun to tell time. They rode back to the gym and thought they had plenty of time before the final game started.
“We walked into the gym, and they were tipping off,” Rodney said. “Robert gave me this ‘you’re in big trouble, buddy’ look. He never said a word to me or put me in.”
He said his uncle called a time out before half-time and addressed the players with, “Rodney was late, and that’s disrespectful to the team. It’s disrespectful to y’all, and it’s disrespectful to himself. I’m fine with not playing him, but I want to put it to a vote.’”
Rodney said every player voted to let him play.
“My uncle then tried to talk them out of it!” Rodney said, laughing.
The team lost in the finals by 2 points, but Rodney said he learned a valuable lesson.
“I was never late again,” he said. “I learned to never let people down again; he drove that home.
“My dad passed away when I was 24, and Robert took over that role. … He’s taught me a lot, and I could never repay everything he’s done for me.”
Griffin said that after he steps down as county judge, there is a possibility that he will serve in a part-time capacity in another office.
“I will be working to advocate for medicines to be made available for all U.S. citizens that are not now possible,” he said, explaining that there is a cancer-treatment drug available in Europe, but the Food and Drug Administration has not approved it for use in the United States.
Talking on a national level about the right to access medicines like the one he needs, Griffin may find himself swimming in deep waters, but as he said, he will keep his eye on the shore and not get in over his head.