C. V. Griffin, Sr.

C. V. Griffin Sr. was born in Canton, Illinois on October 16, 1903.  As a teenager, he had an ice cream franchise, worked in an oil refining plant, and sold insurance on the side.  In 1924, when the Florida Land Boom was in full swing, "C. V." was attending the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he met a classmate, Fuller Warren.  After only one year of college, Mr. Griffin was lured away by quick profits in Lake County real estate.

The Florida Land Boom quickly collapsed and Mr. Griffin took a ten-year contract from W. J. Howey in 1928 to pack fruit, providing Mr. Griffin would build a packinghouse in Howey-in-the-Hills.  With C. A. Vaughn of Umatilla, Florida as president and C. V. Griffin as Secretary-Treasurer, the Vaughn-Griffin Packing Company became the second largest fresh fruit shipper in Florida within 5 years.  The Great Depression of the 1930s eroded land sales, and by 1936, William J. Howey approached Griffin for financial help.  Reportedly, the Howey Company was down to its last 2000 raw acres, plus 1,500 acres in the corporate limits of the Town of Howey, $1.25 million dollars in debt, with the Town being in default on $450,000.  In 1936, Griffin assumed the debts and control of the 1,500 acres that made up the Town, and went into the real estate business once again.

In 1940, two years after Mr. Howey died, Mr. Griffin became the majority stockholder when he purchased the remaining assets of the Howey Company along with Dodge Taylor.  Mr. Griffin had helped elect Fuller Warren governor of Florida in 1948, reportedly covering one third of the campaign costs.  After completion of the State Road 19 bridge, opening the county seat to US 27 under Governor Warren, Mr. Griffin built and auctioned off seventy homes to develop the center of town.

In 1956, Mr. Griffin organized a co-educational 7th to 12th grade prep school called Howey Academy.  After a rocky start, Mr. C. A. Vaughn Jr. was brought in as headmaster in 1959 to build the school into an internationally recognized school with one of the best curriculums in the state.  C. V. Griffin died at his Griffin Village home, Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida on April 2, 1982 at the age of 79.