Motorcycle ride to honor ‘Griff’

GUILFORD – In life, Gary Griffith, an artist whose rugged hands crafted metal into whimsical art, had an air about him that drew attention.

In death, it is the memory of the gentle giant that will draw people from throughout the state to the second annual motorcycle ride in his name Saturday, June 16.

Griffith, 55, was killed in June 2006 when his motorcycle collided head-on with a pickup truck on Route 15 in Guilford. The teenager who was driving the truck was charged with failure to keep right and with improper passing. His license was suspended for 60 days, and he paid a $304 fine.

Family and friends of “Griff, as he was known locally, have planned an approximately 50-mile motorcycle ride from Iron Art Forge, the business Griffith operated, to his Bradstreet Road farm in Parkman. Participants are asked to be at the forge on Route 15 at 10:30 a.m. A cookout will be held at the farm, and memorial T-shirts will be sold after the ride. Organizers are asking participants to donate $20 for the ride, lunch and a T-shirt. Lunch alone is $5.

The proceeds from Saturday’s activities will provide scholarships for SAD 4 students in their second semester of a trade school, according to Sarah Quirk, Griffith’s daughter.

While donations after his death were contributed to Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, his family also wanted to start a local scholarship. They sold some of Griffith’s handmade crafts at silent auctions held at craft fairs and raised enough to award two $250 scholarships this month. The memorial ride is to help continue those local scholarships.

The fact the event will help students who want to work with their hands would have pleased Griffith, according to his family.

“It’s something I think my father would like,” his son Matthew Griffith said Saturday. Matthew, who plans to ride one of his father’s older Harley-Davidson motorcycles for the memorial ride, was busy over the weekend making handcrafted trophies to be awarded at the affair. He said one will be given to the people’s choice motorcycle and another for the motorcycle Griff would have liked the most, excluding his own.

“This is our learning year, and we’re hoping that people will walk away [Saturday] saying that they had a good experience and that they’ll like to do it next year,” Matthew Griffith said.