Jean Griswold

Jean C. Griswold (July 30, 1930 – January 28, 2017) was an American businesswoman. She was the founder of Griswold Home Care, a corporation founded in 1982 to provide non-medical, in-home care for the elderly and infirm. She was the subject of ongoing press attention because she founded a successful corporation despite using a wheelchair because she suffered from multiple sclerosis.

Education and personal life

Griswold earned her bachelor's degree in economics and business administration from Douglass College in New Brunswick, N.J. in 1952. Initially called Overnight Sitting Service prompted by her discovery that there was no company offering overnight companionship for the frail elderly.

The company was soon renamed Special Care Inc., then renamed Griswold Home Care. In 2005, it was described by the Philadelphia Business Journal as, "the nation's largest, privately owned nonmedical home-care company." By 2006, the company had 87 franchises in 16 states and some outside the United States.

Griswold's son, Kent, served as president of the company, and her husband, Lincoln, a Presbyterian minister, served as chairman of the board.

In 2003–2004, Griswold was Entrepreneur in Residence at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Recognition

Jean has won numerous awards, including the Spirit of Philadelphia Award. She won Working Woman 2001 Entrepreneur of the Year honor. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society presented Griswold with the 2002 MS National Achievement Award. She was inducted to the Hall of Distinguished Alumni of Rutgers University in 1995.

On April 27th, 2023, after resolutions in the Pennsylvania House and Senate, a portion of Township Line Road in Montgomery County, PA was dedicated in honor of Jean Griswold.

Plays, books about Griswold

Letter to My Daughter: Adventures of Atypical Women, a one-woman play written and performed by Beth Hirst, profiled Griswold, Isadora Duncan, explorer Mary Kingsley, and environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill as models of women who overcome challenges to lead lives of great achievement.

In 1999, her story was told in the book "The Courage To Give" by Jackie Waldman. Her story was published in the 2010 book Women of Spirit, by Katherine Martin.

Books by Jean Griswold