1941 MEMORIAL PROGRAM
FOR MRS. FLORENCE TERRY GRISWOLD
Tribute given by Mrs. J. Tom Williams, then the only surviving charter member. (From a handwritten document.)
So this is what came to pass. On October the sixteenth, nineteen hundred and sixteen, in luncheon session at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, Florence Griswold met with the women she had invited to be charter members of the proposed Pan American Round Table and we organized. For our guidon we selected of course, One for All, All for One. Mrs. Griswold proclaimed that our Pan American Round Table was strictly non-political and non-sectarian and that we had organized solely to help promote friendliness and understanding among the WOMEN of the Western Hemisphere.
Once organized, we began by meeting twice a month in luncheon session at the hotel. At every luncheon we had some of the strangers within our gates to dine with us. And what charming women the strangers proved to be. We became friends.
Here we pause a moment to record the matchless initiative of Florence Griswold. Twice a month, in festive luncheon session, as Director General of our Pan American Round Table she brought together for the first time ever in the Western Hemisphere leading women stemming from the two entirely different civilizations - the Anglo Saxon and the Latin. Furthermore, we were all there in the spirit of willing participation. So the Pan American Round Table of San Antonio, Texas, organized on October the sixteenth 1916 was the very first Pan American Round Table for Women ever to be organized in the Western Hemisphere.
In due time came to Florence Griswold invitations from the women of several progressive Texas cities to come over and help them to organize Pan American Round Tables. She was delighted to do so. Pan American growth always attracted our dynamic founder. She was unafraid of work and in her club activities she accomplished mountains of it. She lived to see these daughter Pan American Round Tables (so we affectionately called them) functioning in a way to make all Texas look on with approval and admiration. Before she passed on, she had the satisfaction of having it said of her cherished organizations: "They are building in two directions - they have reached bedrock in the programs that hold statewide attention. "It is too soon to prophesy that the Texas Pan American Round Tables will yet go up to the level of hemisphere-wide participation."
Florence Terry Griswold was a born leader. Hers was also an enchanting friendliness. Her ability to write and speak Spanish fluently was a most helpful asset. She seemed always to remember the faces and names of friends and she had the gracious manner that charmed everybody and made acquaintances eager to meet her again.
Throughout her twenty-five long years as Director General she exhibited this unusual characteristic trait; i.e., Mrs. Griswold was never known to feel envy or jealousy or selfishness! Such an example emphasized her impartial leadership.
Mrs. Griswold strongly advocated the necessity for introducing into all the schools of the United States the study of the Pan American countries and the exhaustive study of the Spanish language. By the way, do we Pan Americans realize that, in our great interlocked Geographical unity (Pan America), there are twenty-one republics and in all but two of the twenty-one, SPANISH is the language? The two are Brazil and the United States.
As a presiding officer, our Mrs. Griswold displayed great poise, judgment and persistence. Her administration was virile and far seeing, for she had both imagination and courage...the qualities that tend to keep one forever young! The Pan American guidon just fitted in with her qualifications: One for All; All for one.
It made her club members happy to keep the Pan American step with her under the Pan American motto. Hers was magnetic leadership and she was never weary of training us in Pan American citizenship.
This precious friend of ours, the Founder and leader whose passing we mourn today, was a woman whose life showed that she had a great deal to build immortality out of; and that she was sincerely building.
(A copy of this was given to me by Mrs. Cleo Seelinger of Austin. I have copied it exactly as it was written. At the State Convention of Pan American Round Tables held in Dallas, Texas, March of 1987, we voted to declare October 16th Florence Terry Griswold Day. Since all Tables will want to honor Mrs. Griswold's memory at their October meeting, this Tribute written so many years ago would be a fitting memorial. Dee Cole, May 20, 1987.)