The Marquette graduate school lost a passionate advocate for faculty research over winter break.

Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Programs T. Daniel Griffiths, 57, suffered a heart attack as he was leaving the John P. Raynor, S.J. Library Dec. 16.

Department of Public Safety officers arrived at the scene to administer CPR, according to Brigid O'Brien, director of University Communication.

Griffiths was then taken to Aurora Sinai Samaritan Medical Center, where he was treated in the intensive care unit and listed in critical condition. Griffiths died in the hospital Dec. 21, O'Brien said. A memorial service was held Dec. 23 in the Chapel of the Holy Family at the Alumni Memorial Union.

"Dan was a valued member of our senior leadership team, and he will be greatly missed," said University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild in an e-mail sent out to students, faculty, administrators and staff.

Griffiths, who came to Marquette in 2003, was the chair of the University Board of Graduate Studies and a member of the Committee on Research, according to his administrative assistant, Melody Baker.

Baker said Griffiths advocated increasing faculty research awards and focused especially on junior faculty members.

"He had a passion for helping junior faculty get started in their careers and advance in their research," she said.

University Provost Madeline Wake also cited Griffiths' commitment to research as his significant contribution to the university.

"Dan had a passion for research. In him, we have lost a fine researcher, but more so we have lost a gentle, kind man. He was dedicated to building the research enterprise at Marquette. This is his legacy," Wake said in the e-mail.

While at Marquette, Griffiths increased the number of Ph.D. graduates, increased funds for internal research awards to faculty and established the Marquette Research Institute.

Barbara Griffiths said her husband encountered many graduate students who were ready to give up on their doctoral studies, but he helped them with academic planning and in their daily lives. The family even hosted the students at yearly barbecues.

"I think he made a huge difference with his students," Barbara Griffiths said.

She said her husband's cheerful personality and ability to make a friend wherever he went is something she will always remember.

"He really liked people, and people really liked him," she said.

Baker recalled Griffiths was very proud of his sons – Justin, 21, Eric, 25, and Michael, 28.

While living in DeKalb as a faculty member at Northern Illinois University, Barbara Griffiths said her husband was active in their sons' youth soccer leagues and coached their track club for eight years. She said he also enjoyed taking their sons on fishing trips.

Barbara and Dan, who would have been married 33 years at the end of January, met when they were both graduate students at the University of Illinois.

Barbara Griffiths said she was grateful for the support her family has received from her husband's students, co-workers at Northern Illinois and Marquette, personal friends and the Quaker community, to which they belonged.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Jan. 18 2005.