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Hall of Fame
Dr. George B. Griswold
George Griswold was born on December 9, 1928, in Ponca City, Oklahoma, to Edward H. and Naomi Jane Bullard Griswold. His father was a petroleum engineer and the family moved to New York and Texas, where he received his early education. He served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953, starting as platoon leader and moving up to the battalion staff.
Dr. Griswold attended the New Mexico School of Mines, earning his Bachelor’s Degree in mining engineering in 1955, with the school’s highest honor, the Brown Medal. He then went on to the University of Arizona, where he received his Master’s Degree in 1957. In 1967, he earned his Ph.D in geological engineering at the same institution, the first Ph.D the university granted in that field.
Dr. Griswold worked in a variety of mining camps during his early career: Tepehuanes, Mexico; Fairbanks, Alaska; Leadville, Colorado; Superior and San Manuel, Arizona, and Bishop, California. In 1957, he joined the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources as an associate mining engineer. After receiving his doctorate, he became a faculty member, serving as Mining Department Chairman until 1970 when he returned to industry. He first consulted for Minera Azteca in Mexico, and then joined Getty Oil Company in Los Angeles. The company soon transferred him to Canada as Vice President and Manager of Mineral Exploration for western Canada and Alaska. Getty terminated Canadian mineral exploration in 1974.
Dr. Griswold returned to New Mexico and joined Sandia National Laboratories. He pursued energy research in coal and oil shale. He was then assigned to work under Dr. Wendell Weart, participating in the site selection for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. He left Sandia in 1979 to form his own consulting firm know as the Tecolote Corporation. He and his associates conducted studies for Sandia, DOE, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and numerous mining companies.
He completed his professional career by returning to New Mexico Tech in 1984. He served as Chairman of the Mining, Geological and Environmental Engineering Department until his retirement in 1988. He was both a Distinguished and Legion of Honor Member of the Society of Mining Engineers.
His loving wife Carol Ann Griswold survives him. He has seven children: Cynthia, Pat, Jim and Robert from his first marriage and Pete, Matt and Kady, whom he ”inherited” from his second marriage. There are nine grandchildren.
Dr. George B. Griswold, aged 73, alumnus and professor emeritus at New Mexico Tech, passed away on March 26, 2002, in Las Cruces.
Dr. Griswold was inducted into the New Mexico Mining Hall of Fame on September 24, 2004.
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