Former Portsmouth Executive Councilor Ruth Griffin has died at the age of 99.
A nurse by training, Griffin brought a caring but blunt manner to a public life that included 42 years on Portsmouth's Housing Authority board, stints in the State House and Senate, and two decades on the Executive Council.
Griffin also served two terms as a National Republican Committeewomen, and that made her a coveted New Hampshire ally for candidates during the state presidential primary.
Candidates she backed included George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee and John Kasich
A lover of animals, Griffin kept sheep and goats in her half-acre yard on Richards Avenue in Portsmouth.
In 2022, the city named a workforce housing development Ruth Lewin Griffin Place.
In 2018, the state renamed the little bay bridge in Newington after Griffin.
Several politicians put out statements over the weekend in response to Griffin’s death on Saturday.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen called her a “pillar of the Portsmouth community.”
“You represented the best of Portsmouth and did so at the highest levels of government,” wrote Portsmouth mayor Deaglan McEachern on Facebook. “On behalf of Portsmouth I wanted to say thank you for all you’ve done on behalf of all of us.”
Griffin’s daughter, Joan, told Seacoastonline her mother passed away peacefully and surrounded by family.
