Tuesday this week, Anthony H. Griffin retired as county executive of Fairfax County. Widely recognized as one of the region’s most effective leaders, Griffin served as deputy county manager of Arlington County and City Manager of Falls Church before assuming the role of Deputy County Executive in Fairfax County.

Griffin graduated from Yorktown High School in Arlington and earned masters degrees in urban affairs and in urban and regional planning from Virginia Tech.

During his tenure as county executive, all three national rating services gave Fairfax County Triple A Bond ratings – and the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University gave the County the highest rank of 40 counties evaluated for Government Performance. In addition, Griffin was highly regarded by his peers in public management, receiving important awards from the International City Management Association for his leadership and achievement. At his last event as Fairfax County Executive, I was pleased to present Tony with a framed resolution which summarized and praised his leadership and accomplishments. Twenty-six members of the Virginia House and Senate signed the resolution. Congressman Gerry Connolly and former Chairman Kate Hanley also attended the Board of Supervisors meeting this week and added words of praise for Tony’s success in managing a large and complex organization.

One of the successful efforts of the Griffin years was the Fairfax Partnership for Youth (FPY), a 501(c)(3) organization, initiated by Chairman Hanley, with the support of the Board of Supervisors and the Fairfax County Fairfax County School Board, in cooperation with the Falls Church School Board.

FPY became the lead agency for mentoring programs and bullying prevention in the Fairfax-Falls Church area. Coincidentally, this week a bullying prevention effort will be initiated at the James Lee Community Center on Annandale Road.

On May 7, FPY will sponsor a joint Charity Golf Tournament with the Falls Church Lions Club, to be followed by a 5K race for Youth Mental Wellness on May 19, and Mentoring in Mount Vernon on May 22. For more information, call 703-324-5703.

I would like to extend my personal gratitude to Tony Griffin for his careful and farsighted leadership in promoting efforts like these. He will be joining the faculty at George Mason University where his strong and thoughtful leadership will be very valuable as GMU begins a new era under a new president.

Delegate Scott represents the 53rd District in the Virginia House of Delegates. He may be emailed at deljscott@aol.com