Harry Earl Griffith (July 13, 1887 – March 30, 1940) was a newspaper publisher who served as the Secretary of the State of Ohio from 1939 to 1940. Griffith was born in

Centerburg, Ohio Centerburg is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in Knox County, Ohio, Knox County, Ohio, United States, along the North Fork of the Licking River (Ohio), Licking River. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the village populati ...

, in Knox county. He was the son of Nellie Myrtle (Gunsaulus) and Harry Saiger Griffith. He attended Mount Gilead public schools. He attended

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five – a consortium ...

, Delaware, Ohio. He married Mary Clara Terry on April 17, 1912. He was the publisher of the newspaper the Morrow County Sentinel, which he took over after the death of his father, Harry Saiger Griffith. The paper was started by his grandfather John W. Griffith in 1858. He served as the Post Master of Morrow County from 1928 to 1934. He was a prominent Republican in Morrow county and the state of Ohio. He served as an alternate delegate to Republican National Convention from Ohio in 1924. In 1936, he ran an unsuccessful bid for the Secretary of the State of Ohio. He ran again for the same post in 1938 and won. He served as the Secretary of the State of Ohio from 1939 until his death in 1940. Governor John W. Bricker appointed George Neffner to complete the rest of Griffith's term as Secretary of State. Griffith died in Columbus, Ohio on March 30, 1940. He is buried at River Cliff Cemetery, Mount Gilead, Ohio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffith, Earl 1940 deaths Secretaries of State of Ohio Ohio Wesleyan University alumni People from Morrow County, Ohio 1887 births Ohio Republicans 20th-century American politicians People from Knox County, Ohio