Jeffrey Grigg

1977 - 2020

Jeffrey Alexander Grigg

Feb 12, 1977 - Nov 10, 2019

Dr. Jeffrey A. Grigg, a San Francisco native, died November 10, 2019, age 42, in Baltimore, Maryland, of complications from a rare form of autoimmune encephalitis.
Born February 12, 1977, Jeffrey was one of the first students to attend the newly formed San Francisco Day School in 1981. He graduated from University High School in 1995 and Yale University in 1999 with a BA in English. From 1999 to 2000 he was the Colet Fellow at St. Paul's School in London, England, and then taught English at Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut, where he also was assistant director of the Summerbridge (now known as Breakthrough) program.
From the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he earned a master's degree in educational leadership and policy analysis in 2006, a second master's degree in sociology in 2008, and a doctorate in sociology in 2014. That year he became a post-doctoral fellow in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, where he was named assistant professor in 2016.
He also held joint appointments with the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) and the National Science Foundation's Math Science Partnership STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES). He also worked with researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Arts and Sciences, Business and Public Health. His research focused on how children's early life experiences are related to school success, how dangerous school commutes lead to school absenteeism, how changing schools affects student's performance, and how lead exposure affects educational outcomes.
"Jeff had that wonderful combination of being a serious and thoughtful researcher who also cared deeply about the life course of Baltimore City's most vulnerable children," said Marc L. Stein, a close friend and collaborator and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education. Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Stephen Morgan remembered Jeff's promise. "Jeff was a very intelligent and thoughtful scholar, interested in ideas for their own sake but also interested in research that could improve the lives of the less fortunate. He was perfectly suited for a career in education research, and we are far worse off without the contributions he would have offered."
Jeffrey is survived by his mother and father, Kaatri and Douglas Grigg of San Francisco, his brother Eliot of Seattle, and his wife Lael and three daughters Margaret, Celia, and Linnea of Baltimore.
A private family funeral was held in Baltimore. Contributions in Jeffrey's memory can be given to the San Francisco Day School, San Francisco University High School, Calvert School of Baltimore, or to the Jeffrey A. Grigg Memorial Award at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, which will support PhD students and Jeffrey's legacy of scholarship.