About Muddy Boots

My best advice was to wear Muddy Boots. Go into the field and ask two questions.1. How are you/we doing ? 2. What could we do better ? Then be quiet and listen and act on the information. The people closest to the work generally know the most about the work. Find their pain and fix it.

Your will never need to be low price because you will always be low cost.

NICE TO MEET YOU

My Blog Posts

The back nine....or back four.

This is the longest time I have gone without posting on Muddy Boots. The last being 12/26/2025. It has been 28 months since I stepped down from ECS, 12 months since stepping down from the Drexel board, the Academy, and several for-profit and non-profit boards. For the first time since I was twenty-three and could argue fourteen, I was not on a 40-60-hour workweek schedule or personally responsible for employees, customers, or an I-95 commute. Jacqui is clear that 47 years in,

Governance Thoughts

I have been thinking about Governance a lot of late. Not just for the companies I work with as a board member for profit and non, nor just for my own company, Modern Group, Ltd. Rather, I have been thinking about the connection between good governance, impact, stakeholders, and best practices as a director or Chair. First, good governance at the fundamental level is the same for the public and private, for-profit, and non-profit sectors—my observations and scar tissue. ·

Advent 2025

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etal, and a Happy New Year. Jacqui and I hope you and your family are safe and that the year ahead is full of promise and opportunity. In this season of light, may we all bring some to those in need with our time, our treasure, and our talent. May we do so not just in this season but year-round, as the needs are tremendous and a hand up does so much more than a hand out. To quote from my ECS days," to go fast go alone, but

About Me.

I am a semi-retired individual with a passion to answer the call to service. As you can read below I have had a number of different work experiences and volunteer opportunities. All gave me experience and what I have come to call scar tissue. What I have learned is that scar tissue is often the best teacher. Experience counts, but so does curiosity and the knowledge that each day brings a new approach, a new technology, a new experience. The challenge is how we combine experience and be open to change. To learn that "to go fast go alone, but to go far go together."

And never sit on the side lines.

It is the man or woman in the Arena that counts.

David E. Griffith

Chairman

Modern Group Ltd.

215 840 8103 (c)

griffithd@moderngroup.com

www.themuddybootsblog.com

LinkedIn.com/In/griffithd

Dave Griffith is an independent senior advisor at the Delaware Valley Family Business Center.

He most recently served as the Executive Director and Head Coach of Episcopal Community Services of the Diocese of PA. He currently serves as Executive Director Emeritus. www.ecsphilly.org

He is currently the Executive Chairman of Modern Group Ltd of Bristol, PA.; Chairman of Garman Builders of Lititz, PA; Lead Director of Verus LLC of Princeton, N.J.; Chairman of Laminators Inc of Hatfield, PA; Chairman of D’Angelo Brothers Inc.; Chairman of Oliver Fire Protection & Security of KOP, PA. He is also a trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. He is an advisor to the Journal of Social Innovation, Fairmount Ventures, DVFBC, Learning without Scars, and several DVFBC clients.

He is also a director of Episcopal Community Services, Ride to Work, Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, Emeritus Trustee of ANS, Chair of the Franklin Society with the Bucks County Herald Foundation, trustee of Corinth 13, advisory board member of the Raj & Kamla Gupta Governance Institute, and a fellow of the Westminster School. He is a member of the Solebury Police Pension Board. He is a member of MHEDA, (Material Handling Equipment Dealers Association), and a past or current member of ARA (American Rental Association), AED (Associated Equipment Dealers), NAW (National Association of Wholesalers), YPO (Young Presidents Organization), WPO (World Presidents Organization), and the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. He is Chair of the McEwen Family Scholarship Trust and the Griffith Family Foundation.

Before ECS, he served as President and CEO of The Modern Group LTD. Prior to Modern, he was an executive at IBM, ROLM, and MCI. He has been the Board Chairman of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University and a trustee of Drexel University. He is a former trustee and officer at The Westminster School in Simsbury, Connecticut, and a former director or Chair of the JJ Haines Company, Hoober Inc., Mountain Laurel Spirits LLC, Delaware Valley Floral Group, Keim Lumber, Crazy Aarons Putty World, PA Biotechnology Center, NAWIDE, Leadership Inc. Philadelphia, Victory Farm, the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, World Café Live, and the Economy League. He also served as an advisor to IBM, Caliper, and Diemlife. Additionally, he was a senior warden at Trinity Episcopal Church and the president of MHEDA.

Along with his wife, Jacqueline Griffith, he is a supporter and advocate for the work of Fisherman’s Mark, Foundation Academies, Children’s First, Bryn Mawr School of Social Work, Corinth 13, The Bucks County Herald, Bowman’s Wildflower Preserve, The Academy of Natural Sciences, Barnard, Kenyon, and Episcopal Community Services. He, with his brothers, established and maintains the Griffith Family Scholarship at Westminster.

He is a nationally recognized speaker and author on Leadership, Governance, Poverty in America, Community Engagement, and Family Business. Dave is a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Non-Profit Leadership program and has spoken at Harvard, Temple, Kenyon, Drexel, Rutgers, and many trade associations and corporations. He is the author of the Muddy Boots Blog, www.themuddybootsblog.com, and a guest columnist at the Philadelphia Business Journal.

He is a graduate of Kenyon College ’76 and The Westminster School ‘72. At Kenyon, he received his B.A. with honors in Economics and History. While at Kenyon, he played DIII Soccer and Lacrosse, volunteered with the local Fire Department, served as an EMT and on the fire line, and worked as a resident advisor. He is also a member of the Lambda chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon, the Lookaway Golf Club, the Balsam Lake Club, the Yale Club, and Trinity Episcopal Church. He is a life member of Trout Unlimited.

He and his wife of forty-six years, Jacqui, have two married adult children, one grandson, one granddaughter, and one active Westie. Dave is an avid fly fisher, fly tier, and outdoorsman. All things being equal, he would rather be on the waters of Beaverkill.

Theodore Roosevelt’s "The Man in the Arena" best captures his philosophy of life and Muddy Boots... “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Updated 3/22/2026