SURREY — The city has lost one of its civic treasures.
Writer and educator Ed Griffin died Thursday evening (July 23) at Surrey Memorial Hospital after a long battle with cancer. He had also suffered a severe stroke recently, according to Sheila McKinnon, Surrey's manager of arts services.
Griffin, a founder of the Surrey International Writers' Conference, was named a Surrey Civic Treasure in 2012 for his cultural contributions to the city.
Last February, Griffin wrote about his life in a story that appeared in the Now.
"He was such a lovely person," McKinnon told the Now.
"I will always remember his smile and the gracious way he worked with people less fortunate in our society to promote literacy through creative writing," she added. "He was certainly a generous and caring man and I feel blessed for having the opportunity of knowing him.
"He will be missed by family, friends and many colleagues in the literary arts community."
Griffin helped create the annual Surrey International Writers' Conference, held every October, after participating in a similar event in Seattle in the early 1990s. As an educator, he taught prison inmates the craft of writing for nearly a quarter century, and has had five books of his own published since 2001.