WATCH: Rogers Employee of the Year Rich Griffin

The radio community is small. For years I had heard about this guy named Rich Griffin who was doing a popular morning show in Sudbury, Ontario. I got to meet him in May 2015, however he suddenly passed away a few weeks later. The legacy he left behind is now literally saving lives.

At a radio conference in Toronto almost 1 year ago, I met a guy I had heard so much about… Rich Griffin. He passed away a few weeks later at the age of 52 from a brain aneurysm. Rich donated his organs to others and many have survived because of him.

Rich was given the CEO’s Award as 2016 Rogers Employee of the Year. Rich passed away suddenly in May 2015 and became an organ donor. This video tribute was played to a standing ovation at the awards gala on March 3, 2016 at the Carlu, Toronto.

The Rich Griffin #1Saves8 Campaign was launched in November 2015 by his widow Nancy and her friends to honour Rich’s memory by increasing the number of registered organ donors, and by raising funds to support the financial needs of Northern Ontario transplant patients and their families. A highlight of the campaign is the Rich Griffin #1Saves8 Gala.

Before his sudden death on May 23, 2015, Rich Griffin was known as a kindhearted, loving family man and friend to thousands of radio listeners in the Sudbury community. At the end of his 14-year role as morning host on KiSS 105.3, along with his good friend and “non-romantic life partner”, Gary Beech, KiSS aired a wonderful and moving tribute to Rich on May 25 to help the community mourn its loss.

A loving dad to his daughter Zoe, Rich had an awesome sense of humour and adventurous spirit. A radio broadcaster for more than 28 years, Rich was a huge Seinfeld fan (hence, the call to “Regift Your Life”), an avid Trekkie, and a man of strong faith, who enjoyed playing guitar at All Nations Church as part of the worship band. He wasn’t a guy who got attached to things, but as Rich says in this April 2011 video by Northern Life, he did love his 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, a “project” previously owned by his father, James, and in which he proposed to his wife, Nancy, in 1995. You can sense the love Rich had for his parents, “Jim” (89) and “Marg” (91), in his touching and funny eulogy to them at their double funeral on April 16, 2014, after they passed away five days apart following 66 years of marriage.  This statement, given by MPP Glenn Thibeault in the Ontario legislature on May 28, captures much of the spirit of Rich in the Sudbury community, along with the rest of the media coverage from that sad week.

Rich’s generous spirit lives on due to his final act of giving. His heart was kept beating on life support at Health Sciences North until May 25 so that it, along with his lungs, kidneys and liver, could save five lives, and his eyes, vessels and pancreas islets (pronounced “eyelets”) would have the opportunity to impact even more lives through future transplants and research. Read these real stories of how organ donation touches lives and register today.