Richard Hadley Griest – 50th Reunion Essay

Richard Hadley Griest

Date of Death: 21-Dec-2011

College: Morse

(This memorial was submitted by Greg Montes and was published in the November/December 2015 Class Notes.)

I learned earlier this year that Richard Griest died on December 21, 2011, in Pleasant Hill, California. I often ate lunch and dinner with Richard in Morse College in 1966–69 and we lived on the same floor of Morse Tower in 1967–68. We had many discussions about politics, history, Yale, and other subjects. I and others who knew Richard over the years found him to be very intelligent and good-humored. My parents enjoyed meeting and talking with Richard when he stayed overnight with them in Omaha, Nebraska, while driving from Yale to San Diego in June 1969.

Richard grew up in San Diego in a typical suburban, two-income family. Richard’s father, Hadley, was a US Navy lieutenant commander and commanding officer of the submarine rescue vessel, USS Chanticleer. Richard attended public schools in San Diego, graduating from Crawford High School. After his freshman year at Caltech, Richard transferred to Yale in 1966. After graduation, Richard worked in various jobs in California, mainly as a database developer and software engineer for various firms, including French firm Schneider Electric, and Systron Donner, and on contract basis for the US Homeland Security department. Richard is survived by an uncle, cousins, and friends who miss his good company.”