Robert Griggs – 50th Reunion Essay

Robert Griggs

3821 Lynn Ave.

St. Louis Park, MN 55416

mngriggs@gmail.com

218-402-0484

Spouse(s): Susan L. Lindberg (1969)

Child(ren): Thomas Griggs (1974), David Griggs (1979)

Education: Yale Univesity BA 1969, University of Minnesota MA 1971, Harvard Divinity School M.Div. 1973, Andover Newton Theological School D. Min. 1978

Career: Associate Pastor First UCC, Manchester NH for 6 years, Pastor Lynnhurst UCC, Minneapollis MN for 26 years, Interim Pastoriates in Minnesota for ten years

Avocations: Travel, Writing, Volunteering, Minnesota Twins, and Timberwolves,

College: Saybrook

After graduation, I moved to Minneapolis and married Susan Lindberg. We lived there a couple of years while Sue finished her nursing degree and I studied philosophy, both at the University of Minnesota. Then we moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I attended Harvard Divinity School. At Yale my two passions were philosophy and working with youth in the Dixwell Avenue and Hill neighborhoods. Ministry kind of split the difference, and with some ups and downs, has proved a good career choice for me.

After I graduated from Harvard, we moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, where I served a United Church of Christ Congregation for six years and where both of our sons were born. From Manchester we moved to a suburb of Minneapolis, where we’ve been ever since. Sue has a lot of family here, and I just love long, miserable winters. This is odd, since my religious tradition is all about alleviating suffering, not putting up with it.

For 26 years I served a great neighborhood church here and sank deep roots in our community. Then in 2005 I was hospitalized twice for major depression and anxiety disorder. It’s a long story. The good news is that you can read all about it by buying my book A Pelican of the Wilderness: Depression, Psalms, Ministry, and Movies. The even better news is that I was extremely fortunate in my recovery and was able to return to work after a year or so. As someone told me when I was on a psych unit, “My mental illness is the worst and the best thing that ever happened to me.”

At this point I’m pretty much retired, though I still dust off an old sermon now and again. We travel a lot, especially to Medellin, Colombia, home of our older son, Tom, and his wife and Washington, D.C., home of our younger son, David, and his wife. I also volunteer and serve on the board of Vail Place Uptown, a clubhouse for people living with mental illness. I’m currently finishing a book of essays about recovery from mental illness.

As I look back on my time at Yale, it is definitely with mixed feelings. A first-generation college student coming from a military program at a public school in Richmond, Virginia, in many ways I was unprepared for Yale. I would have much benefited from a gap year or two, if there had been such a thing at that time. I feel like I spent more time growing up at Yale than in taking advantage of what a great university had to offer. Then again, it was a great place to grow up, and I got good at handling a pool cue, especially late at night. At Yale I made a few lifelong friends, had my life horizons expanded dramatically, and even learned a few things in classes that I’ve never forgotten. So, on balance, I’m glad they let me into Yale, and I’m glad I went there.