Storke Funeral Home Obituaries

On January 6, 2024, Gwynne Very Blundon Griswold passed away peacefully at her home in King George, VA, surrounded by her loving family. She is survived by her husband of 38 years, Robert N. Griswold, Sr; his children/her step-children Beth, Amelia and Nelson; her two daughters, Susie Blundon Baumgarten and Sally Jean Blundon (Debbie Findley), as well as her grandchildren, Katie Marshall (David) and James A. Baumgarten (fiancée, Christine Hill). She is also survived by a host of relatives and many friends who loved and admired her.

Gwynne was born in Westwood, MA. She was an only child, born to Marjorie Vickers Very who predeceased her on January 25,1985. She was christened and raised within The Swedenborgian Church of North America, at The Boston Church/Beacon on the Hill where she attended weekly Sunday Services. Upon graduation from high school, she attended Radcliffe College in Cambridge, MA, majoring in architectural design. During her college years she spent some of her summer vacations working as a live-in nanny with a family at their vacation home on Cape Cod and also worked as a bookbinder at the Plimpton Press in Norwood, Ma. +

She met her first husband, Joseph A. Blundon, at a Harvard square dance that he was calling at Harvard’s Memorial Hall, and the two were married after Joe’s graduation from Harvard Law School. While her husband was in the navy, Gwynne worked as a designer in New York, and upon his discharge, the couple moved to Keyser, West Virginia, where they lived, with their daughters, before moving to the DC area. Their initial square dance meeting was indicative of their shared interest in folk music and dance, an interest that led to their involvement with many dance organisations, notably the English Country Dance & Song Society, the Scottish Country Dance Society and the Contra Dance Society. They enjoyed going to Pinewoods Dance Camp in Plymouth, MA, where the family vacationed for many years.

After moving from Keyser to Kensington, MD, in 1966, she became a Head Start teacher, and later, after moving to Potomac, MD.  a substitute Teacher within the Montgomery County Public School System.  She was a member of the local Swedenborgian Church, The Church of the Holy City in Washington, DC, where both daughters were christened as infants. She became a Licensed Realtor in the State of Maryland in the mid-1970s. After her divorce from her first husband, she attended George Washington University where she obtained a B.S. Degree in landscape design in 1983(2). Soon thereafter, she started her own landscape design business, Gardens by Gwynne (aka Gardens by Design), creating and maintaining gardens for a varied clientele in the larger Washington Metropolitan Area.

Her mother had taught her organic gardening methods at a young age, and she continued to use, experiment with and develop those techniques in her years of gardening in West Virginia, Maryland and, later, Virginia. In addition, she worked for many years at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC. After moving to King George, VA, in 2002, she joined the King George Garden Club where she shared her wealth of knowledge and information with everyone, reciting the precise original Latin name of each plant, shrub and flower, helping design different gardens and ensuring the proper placement of same depending on the position of sun and shade. She won numerous awards for her many gardening designs and accomplishments. She was also an artist who enjoyed making pottery and painting, like her mother.

She met her second husband, Robert N. Griswold, Sr., in Greenbelt, MD, and they were married on November 7, 1987. They enjoyed travelling in Bob’s RV, touring much of the United States, as well as spending time at the Lake House in North Carolina. They built a home in King George, VA, where they remained until her death. Gwynne continued attending Sunday Services in Washington, DC until she could no longer drive. She and Bob also frequented the Sunday Services at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in King George, VA, where they worshipped together for many years.

We will dearly miss her cheerful, kind, gentle and loving spirit.

The Memorial Service is to be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 5486 St. Pauls Road, King George, VA, 22485, at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 27. Internment follows the service immediately.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that charitable contributions be made to one of the following organizations of your choosing:

The Swedenborgian Church of North America/General Convention, P.O. Box 380270, Cambridge, MA 02138 (Link: https://swedenborg.org/donations) for general charitable purposes; and/or

President & Fellows of Harvard College, c/o Harvard Alumni Association, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (Link:  https://alumni.harvard.edu/giving/givenow) for the benefit of the Graduate School of Design; and/or

King George Garden Club, P.O. Box 42, King George, VA 22485 (Checks Only – no Online Link available) to be disbursed accordingly for beautification, purchases and/or funding to be determined by the Club Members