San Marcos man left his mark
He was just 25, but Colin Rodriguez Griswold was already a precocious academic “on the fast track to getting his PhD” who spoke three languages fluently, who had traveled the world, and whose border environmental research work was scheduled to be adopted by the U.S. and Mexican environmental protection agencies next week. He also was a young man with a shy smile who loved soccer, who moonlighted as a musical deejay and who spent hours ferreting out the latest “cutting edge” Latin rock n’ roll, salsa, samba, reggae and other music from Mexico, South America, Spain and Portugal.
But mostly, family and friends said Wednesday, Griswold was an “amazing, mature, exceptional kid.”
“He was always sort of sparkling and enthusiastic,” Griswold’s father, former San Diego State University professor Jerry Griswold said. “He was just amazing.”
Colin Griswold, who lived 24 years in San Marcos and who graduated from San Marcos High School, was killed instantly early Saturday morning in Tucson. He was driving home from a friend’s home when a motorist fleeing the police rammed into his car and fled the scene on foot.
Jerry Griswold jokingly said his son’s love of academia ----- he earned a bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego, a master’s degree from San Diego State University, and was working on his doctorate at the University of Arizona ---- came as a pleasant surprise after he told his parents in elementary school he wasn’t keen on going to school.
“When he was taken to Richland Elementary School (in San Marcos), he reported to us that he had ‘tried it, and that it wasn’t working out,’ “ Jerry Griswold said with a chuckle. “That somehow changed in high school.”
Colin’s sister, Breca Griswold, said her brother was kind of a tall, skinny kid with a shy smile in high school. But she said his varied interests let him cross over the traditional cliquish high-school boundaries. He loved soccer and athletics. He was an excellent student, spoke fluent Spanish, and loved music.
She said her brother’s caring, sensitive nature helped him make quick friends.
“He would smile in a bashful way, but people felt like an instant connection to him,” Breca Griswold said, “because he really listened and was able to speak.”
Jerry Griswold said his son’s bicultural background ---- Irish on his father’s side and Mexican on his mother’s side ---- pushed his academic interests toward research on Mexican-American border studies.
Jerry Griswold said English was the main language in the home, but that he and his wife would speak Spanish when they didn’t want their kids to eavesdrop. Colin, he said, “just sort of picked it up on his own.”
As he grew older, and visited Japan with his father, Mexico and South America with his mother and the rest of the family, Colin eventually “fell in love with Brazil,” and learned how to speak Portuguese fluently.
SDSU professor Rick Van Schoik, who directed Colin Griswold’s environmental studies for the college’s Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy ---- a consortium of five American and five Mexican universities ---- said Griswold was mainly responsible for creating a system of environmental criteria that the U.S. and Mexican environmental protection agencies plan to adopt in Juarez next week.
The criteria is intended to judge environmental changes to air quality, water quality, population mortality rates along the U.S.-Mexico border that both governments can use to make environmental policies.
Breca Griswold said she spoke with her brother over the phone the night he died.
“My last conversation with him, they (Colin and his friends) were just hanging out, and talking about starting up a production company to bring a “rock en Espanol” program to Tucson,” she said. “They were talking about how each night of the week they could bring different bands in. He just had a lot of ideas.”
Family members said they planned to hold a visitation and rosary service for Colin from 5-8 p.m. Monday at Allen Brothers Mortuary in San Marcos, to be followed by a funeral at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church in San Marcos.
Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.
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