Los Angeles County
Biographies
ELBERT BLACK
GRIFFITH
Elbert Black Griffith, president and director of the Azusa Valley Water Company (a public utility), the Azusa Irrigating Company, and the San Gabriel River Spreading Corporation, citrus grower, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 25, 1891. He is the son of Alfred Patterson and Alice Louisa (Black) Griffith.
He graduated from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, in 1916 with the degree of B.S.
Mr. Griffith purchased a twenty-acre orange grove near Glendora, California, in 1916 and operated same until 1919. He then purchased one hundred and eighty-five acres of oranges near Azusa, California, and since has served as operator. He has been president and director of the San Gabriel River Spreading Corporation since 1936; a director of the Azusa Irrigating Company since 1922, vice president of Glendora Cooperative Fumigating company since 19928; vice president of Foothill Supply Company since 1928. A director of the ACG Fruit Exchange since 1923; the First National Bank of Azusa since 1923 and a trustee of the Covina Intercommunity Hospital since its inception in 1947. Also a member of the Committee of Nine and the Eastside Committee both of which administer the use of the flow of the San Gabriel River. The produce from Mr. Griffith’s groves is shipped through the Azusa Citrus Association of which he has been a director since 1923.
Member of Theta Delta Chi Fraternity; Covina Rotary of which he is a past president, San Gabriel Country and Sunkist Camera Clubs.
Mr. Griffith married Lillian Hess Archambault in Philadelphia on June 15, 1916; one son, Alfred Patterson, born August 6, 1917. On February 11, 1936 he married (2d) Dorothy Kimball in Fresno, California.
His home is at 17914 East Arrow Highway, Azusa, California, where he also maintains his office.
Transcribed 8-26-14 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Eminent Californians
1953, by Lee E. Johnson & C. W. Taylor.
Page 451, C. W. Taylor Publ., Palo Alto, California,
1953.
© 2014 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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