Ketchikan colleagues mourn landslide victim Sean Griffin

A long line of garbage trucks, electric repair vehicles, fire engines and police cars idled outside the Ketchikan Mortuary last week as they waited to accompany landslide victim Sean Griffin’s remains to the airport.

The dozens of city vehicles formed a procession Aug. 27 to honor the longtime public works employee. Griffin was the only person killed by the slide two days earlier, while helping clear storm drains on his day off.

Sven Westergard is the assistant business manager for the local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers chapter where Griffin was a member. He said he knew him from growing up in the same town, but they really became friends when they started working together.

Westergard said Griffin didn’t like being in the spotlight, something he recalled joking about on the day of the procession.

“We were like, ‘Holy cow, this is amazing,’” Westergard said. “And it was like, ‘Well, Sean would be grumbling about him being the front of attention.’”

Griffin started his career with the city working as a solid waste collector. Westergard said he had a good sense of humor, and helped start a tradition of giving residents a thumbs-up while driving garbage trucks through town.

“I think they got pulled on the carpet one time because they thought they were actually like flipping people off,” Westergard said. “So then it proceeded to one or two of the crews, to the whole garbage crew, to everybody in the city was driving around giving each other thumbs-up.”

In his 17 years of public service, Griffin had progressed from a trash collector to an operator, then moved to be a street maintenance technician, and had recently been promoted to senior maintenance technician. But Westergard said Griffin always looked out for colleagues who were just getting started.

“Sean kind of took a lot of those guys under his wing and helped them out,” Westergard said. “And now they’ve moved on to other job opportunities and some of them are running pretty big companies, all just because of the start they had.”

Brian Gilson worked with Griffin for 12 years in the solid waste department.

“He could work circles around everybody he worked with. He didn’t shy away from anything hard,” Gilson said. “So his work ethic is probably one of the best out there.”

That work ethic and commitment to his colleagues explain why the 42-year-old Griffin went to help out the streets crew on a day he wasn’t supposed to be working. A massive landslide tore through Ketchikan on Sunday, Aug. 25, taking Griffin’s life and destroying several homes.

His coworker Chris Riley was injured in the slide and taken to the hospital, but the City of Ketchikan recently announced that he is recovering well and expected to be released soon.

Gilson said Griffin was a family man, and always prioritized taking care of his four boys and wife, Sarah.

Griffin was an outdoorsman, and both Gilson and Westergard talked about how much he liked working on cars — that he could take a bunch of old parts and build them into a functioning vehicle.

Westergard said he’ll remember Griffin as a great guy who could always cheer him up at the right time.

“Being out on the road or doing something and just having a crap day and all of a sudden, here’s the honk and thumbs up or the goofy comment off to the side,” he said.

Westergard said one of the great things about Ketchikan is the shared value of looking out for one another.

“It’s now more important because there’s going to be a lot of families and friends that are hurting over this, and it’s gonna be a long haul for Ketchikan to recover,” Westergard said. “And so I just hope that everybody keeps that in mind and, you know, keep an eye out for each other.”

Michael Fanelli is the KRBD News Director. He can be reached at michael@krbd.org.