The Dorothy G. Griffin Endowed Collection in French Poetry was established in 1995. Dorothy is president of Varflex Corporation, a manufacturer of electrical insulating sleeving. She taught French and English prior to her marriage to James (’34), who was a prominent attorney in Rome, New York. Dorothy is a member of the Badin Guild. She has also served on the Snite Museum Advisory Council.

The Griffin Endowment, which supports scholarship and research in the romance languages, specifically in the area of French poetry, has provided for some recent additions to the Hesburgh Libraries collection. For example, a subscription to Le Nouveau Petit Robert online was purchased as well as desktop access to an authoritative French dictionary.

The fund allows the Libraries to make a dramatic difference in a genre of growing interest at the University, by providing many valuable works of literature as well as providing critical funding for research and discovery in this discipline. It fills in gaps in primary texts and strengthens collections in medieval and Renaissance French poetry (including works by Marot, Scève, DuBellay, Ronsard, Machaut, Christine de Pisan, and Villon); in 20th-century French poetry (Valéry, Reverdy, Éluard, and Michaux); and in the verse poetry of Baudelaire.

Dorothy has also established the Dorothy G. Griffin Collegiate Chair, in the area of modern American literature, and the Jim and Dorothy Griffin Library Endowment Strengthening the Joyce Sports Collection and Rare Resource Acquisitions.