Farm boy didn't let MS derail life as a lawyer

By Virginia Culver
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 01/09/2008 02:47:19 AM MST
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Garth Grissom "never gave into anything," said his son, Grady Grissom, a rancher in the Walsenburg area.

Grissom, a well-known Denver attorney for 50 years, didn't let the crippling disease multiple sclerosis take over his life and was "very stubborn about fighting it every bit of the way," said his son, Kent Grissom of Evergreen.

Grissom died of complications from MS on Dec. 27 in a care facility. The family planned a private service.

When he was first diagnosed in the 1970s, Grissom and his wife, Elena, decided they "would would face the illness head-on and keep doing as much living, laughing and loving" as we could, she said.

She said the couple's rural backgrounds gave them the toughness to deal with what they faced. (She is from northeastern Colorado).

Cole Grissom credited his dad's "success and the way he lived" in part to his mother. "She stood with him and fought it with him," said Cole Grissom, who lives in Las Vegas, Nev.

Garth Grissom spent his entire career at the Denver law firm Sherman and Howard and by the time he retired at age 75 he was using a motorized scooter to get from his downtown condo to the office, said his son Dr. Colin Grissom of Park City, Utah.

"He often had more confidence in himself than the rest of us did," said Colin Grissom.

"I know he suffered a lot of pain and indignities but he never whimpered," said James Wood, a colleague who called Grissom his mentor.

When Wood was a young lawyer, he said, Grissom twice backed him when a client had to be told he had crossed an ethical or legal line.

"Garth had unpleasant news to tell (the clients) but he did it and came right to the point," Wood said.

Grissom was awarded the Denver Bar Association's Award of Merit and was an active volunteer with Rotary programs that helped young people.

He loved to take his sons fishing, hunting and camping and even went salmon fishing in Oregon when he was using a wheelchair part time.

Garth Grissom was born in Syracuse, Kan., on Jan. 24, 1930, was reared on his family's farm and graduated from Syracuse High School.

He received a Sears and Roebuck scholarship to study agriculture at Kansas State University, planning to take over the family farm.

When he went to the Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., he was dropped off at the wrong dorm and he met students who opened a different world to him, said his wife.

Grissom changed his major to political science.

While at Kansas State he was involved in college theater, played in Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac" and roles in Shakespeare plays.

He did post-graduate work at Cambridge University in England on a Rotary scholarship and earned his law degree at Harvard.

In addition to his wife and sons, he is survived by six grandchildren and his brother, Pat Grissom, of Northridge, Calif.

Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com