David B. Griffith, 62, of Barnesville, OH, died Thursday, 10/03/2013 in Wheeling, WV. He was born 03/15/1951 in Willimantic, CT, son of the late Thomas Lee and Elizabeth Jane Moore Griffith.

David grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then moved with his family to Adrian, Michigan in 1966. He graduated in 1969 from Olney Friends School (then Friends Boarding School) in Barnesville, Ohio. For the next twelve years, in keeping with the times and with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, he was a "rolling stone" who passed through many jobs and towns, never staying past a year. Intelligent and artistic, he studied briefly at the University of Cincinnati, Wilmington College, and Northern Arizona University. He joined the Navy in 1971 but was soon disqualified by his illness. He was an artist and jack-of-all-trades who loved to build, create, and fix things, and rarely was idle. His favorite jobs were those in graphic art and design but he was also a draftsperson, salesperson, welder, laborer, manager, press operator, maintenance worker, construction worker, house painter and sign painter, delivery and truck driver, television and copier repair tech, gas station attendant, auto body repairer, NASCAR decal artist, and more.

Starting with his first marriage in 1981, David tried to settle down. He lived in or near Greensboro, North Carolina, from 1982 to 1985. From there he went to his favorite employer, Pendle Hill, a Quaker institution near Philadelphia where he stayed for two whole years and met his second wife. They moved to British Columbia, a province in southwest Canada that was his favorite geographic location outside Barnesville. He returned in 1990 to the U.S. and in 1991 to Barnesville, where he purchased a storefront with living quarters on Main Street. Anchored thus by real estate and self-employed at Designs by Griff, he finally put down roots. Around that time he also accepted the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder, enabling this permanence and a measure of peace. Sadly, the medications that gave him stability took, in return, his ability to work for a living; but the life he patched together with rental and disability income was still better than life with the disease.

Along with music and his art, David found comfort and joy in friendship. Curious and gregarious, he would talk to anyone from homeless crazies to top executives with equal ease. He formed many deep and lasting relationships even though his illness often sabotaged these, making it hard to maintain real intimacy very long. Still, though fundamentally introverted, he loved to open his home to guests, from drop-ins to overnights to large social festivities. He called his house "The Midway Inn and Halfway House for Runaways" and meant it. He was especially good with young people, always giving an understanding ear and wise counsel to the alienated, depressed, or confused teens and young adults that often washed up on his shores.

In addition to his parents, David was preceded in death by his ex-wife, Margaret Bonney. He is survived by his brother, Michael Griffith; ex-wife, Anne Marie Taber; and roommate, Anthony Greiner.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, October 18, 2013 at 7pm at the Stillwater Meeting House in Barnesville. Arrangements by Campbell-Plumly-Milburn Funeral Home, 319 N. Chestnut St., Barnesville, Ohio .

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Valley Hospice Foundation, 10686 State Route 150, Rayland, OH 43943.