While Tim Griffin is not a military veteran, he harbors a huge gratitude and respect for those who serve and have served. “My father, James, served in the Army during the Korean War and instilled in his children there were seven of us - the respect you have to have,” he said.
Ironically, when Griffin’s father died in 1998, the family expected to hear a bugler play “Taps” at his funeral. Instead, the song came out of a Boombox behind the gravestone. Griffin, who had playedtrumpet since the age of eight and majored in music at the Manhattan School of Music, was appalled that the military did not have buglers. “They might bring a horn, but there’s really a recording inside,” he explained.
Today, he participates in Bugles Across America, a volunteer group that provides a live rendition of “Taps” at military funerals. “I take as many requests as I can,” he said.
Connecting with Veterans
Griffin ultimately went into police work and worked for the prosecutor’s office in Hudson County for 25 years. He has served as chief of police at Stevens Institute of Technology for the last 16 years.
“Maybe because I’m a cop, the veterans found it easy to talk to me,” he said. “They would open up and tell me stories that they never told their kids. They are and were really great guys, their stories flabbergasted me, and I would teach my kids about them. I always enjoyed talking and getting close to them.”
Early on, Griffin helped organize a blood drive with the local veterans, and volunteered his time when the Vietnam Wall came to Livingston.
“We did the Silent Service at Livingston High School, and I would play ‘Taps’at any veterans’service. I would play ‘Taps’ for the PBA on Memorial Day early, before the ceremony, and got involved in the Memorial Day Parade Committee.”
Griffin’s daughter, Gabrielle, also played the horn at local ceremonies. Often the two would play “echo Taps,” with one taking the lead, and the other echoing the first player. The two have a tradition, every Memorial Day, of going to the VFW Hall after the parade to have hot dogs and hang out. “She’ll always remember that,” Griffin said.
Another Griffin pursuit is helping veterans track down their medals, and often creating display cases for them. “I would look up the unit where someone served, and find out what decorations he was awarded. Many decorations came after the war was over, and the guys never knew they received them.”
A woodworker in his spare time, Griffin likes to make display cases for the medals and, if there is one, a photo of the recipient. He recently made a case for a friend of a friend who wanted to retrace her father’s footsteps from the war in Italy, and helped her discover the campaigns in Italy that her dad had served in.
He is proud of the display he made for Phil Coviello, whose dad, of the same name, served with the 101st Airborne in World War II.
“His son knew that his father was a paratrooper and earned a Purple Heart, but not any details, because his father never talked about it,” said Griffin. Finding himself seated next to the veteran during a local baseball game, Griffin began a conversation with him, and learned many details about Coviello’s experiences.
“He was a paratrooper with the 506th regiment that served with the Band of Brothers, highlighted in the eponymous HBO miniseries,” he said.
A Purple Heart Memorial
The idea for a memorial in honor of Livingston’s Purple Heart recipients began around 2000, when Griffin saw a Purple Heart monument in Jersey City. “What a tremendous way to recognize the people that paid the dearest price, whether their lives or their wounds,” he said.
Then-mayor David Katz introduced Griffin to then-business administrator Chuck Tahaney, a purple heart recipient who told Griffin to get the veterans involved. No problem for Griffin, who quickly discovered the Purple Heart organization of Essex County, where he met and befriended World War II vets like Harry Kane and Irv Grossman.
“We decided to put the memorial on the Oval, and Chuck suggested bringing other monuments, that were scattered around town, so people could visit them in one place.”
That became a yearlong project, with people submitting names, going through data from Essex County and the VFW and other veteran organizations. “We were very strict,” Griffin said. “They had to submit military records.”
Soon it was 2001, and the organizers were planning to unveil the walkway on Veterans Day.
“Then 9/11 happened. I had just graduated the FBI Academy on September 7, and my first day back was September 11. Robert Mueller, then director of the FBI, sent a letter about the walkway that I read at the (unveiling) ceremony.”
Twenty-Two Years Later
Several years ago, while Griffin was touching up the fading purple and gold leaf painting on the monument, a veteran walked over. He pointed out his name, but some of the stones were unreadable.
“It’s sad, they’re going to forget us,” the veteran commented. “We can’t let that happen,” Griffin responded. “We have to redo these pavers.
“The stones and engraving that had been used in 2021 were not meant to last,” he noted. “The stones we used now are filled with an epoxy to withstand the weather and chips, and will be here for a long time.”
Former mayor Rudy Fernandez, township manager Barry Lewis, and Paul Lindsay, a Livingston Police officer and Navy veteran, got involved in the project, Griffin said, as did police chief Gary Marshuetz and Chris Southworth and the DPW team. “The Livingston PBA made a donation so we could finish it,” he said.
Griffin also is grateful to Bill Bringas, whose company donated the stones and materials, and found a contractor who donated his time to rip out the old stones and put the new ones in.
When the first set of pavers were made, the names were on floppy disks, Griffin chuckled. “Fortunately, I kept a hard copy that I gave to Russ Jones!” The township reached out for additional recipients, and currently, the monument contains more than 150 names.
“It’s all about the veterans,” Griffin repeated. “My hope is that people take their children here and show them what it’s about. Do you see that name? That’s a veteran, a person who got hurt, in a war while they were trying to protect our rights and freedoms, our liberties.
“The star above, it means they didn’t come home, they were killed on foreign soil defending our freedom.
“It’s important to understand the sacrifices that were made.”
